[TheNoodleMan]

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I thought the same thing before, health insurrance is -EV and only necesary for those w/o a large enough BR. However, this fails to take into consideration the power that health insurrance companies have in negotiating lower rates. So their rake is mitigated.

[/ QUOTE ]are you saying health insurance companies actually get better deals, enough to offset the costs of health insurance? I find this somewhat hard to believe, can you be more specific or provide evidence somewhere? I'm not saying you're wrong I want to believe you I just want proof. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Would this fall under getting better deals on regular medicine, or would this fall under getting better deals if I needed to undergo multiple serious operations?


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Insurance pays far less than you would pay if you paid out of pocket without insurance. My mother and Step father are both doctors and I helped them out with billing for a while and it is unreal.
In most surgeries, there are actually multiple procedures that are all billable separately. If you had surgery w/o insurance, you would pay full price for all of them. Medicare (just as an example) pays their rate (which is always less than what the doc charges) for the first billed proceedure, they pay 50% OF THEIR OWN RATE ON THE SECOND AND 25% ON EVERY ADDITIONAL PROCEEDURE.
Insurance companies have negotiated rates for everything a doctor does, from a physical to major surgery. Having health insurance entitles you to the rate they have negotiated. In the Bill Gates example, it would still make sense for him to have insurance with a million dollar deductable, just so he could get the negotiated rates.