Thank you, Jerry...

I really appreciate that. ...

The theory sounds sensible but,...

I imagine that businesses do shop around now.  They don't want to pay anymore than they must to insure their employees.  
And they have people investigating fine print that we couldn't even understand.  Regular folks would be baffled...
Yet,... with all this research and choosing, and negotiating, and with the positive of having a mostly healthy pool of working employees,... cost's continue to rise.
Do you think individuals could do better?...  I very much doubt it.  They would likely be suckered in by a lower price, and find exclusion and exemption to unforeseen maladies, and then be priced out of their coverage.

HMO's are there to make profit,.. it is their goal,.. and measure of success.  Sick people are not profitable in such a system.
And so,.. they fall to wayside and are picked up by our minimal last resort.  The government.
You can save them, or let them waste away.  And so we have Medicare...
The majority on these rolls are there because they have no other place.  They are otherwise uninsurable.  Even with this burden, Medicare runs more efficiently than private coverages.
Imagine if the rolls were expanded to include healthy folks too.
Costs would go down.  
As long as HMO's are "for profit" enterprises, that profit will come at the expense of medical coverage.  It's the only place for it to come from.  And this will be paid by consumers.  
They deliver no health service, they simply hand out as little as they can.  The less they give, the more they make.
... and choosing which one you bend over for, is a Hobson's choice...

PS..
Somebody better say something insulting soon, or I may burst... ...

My company shops around so much for it's employees healthcare that is seems every year we change insurance.

True personal story. Had a cyst on my elbow that got infected. Went to hospital, waited 2 hours sitting on a bed, seen 2 doctors for maybe 1 mins, didnt do anything, no advise, no prescription. 1 month later, I am now on vacation in florida and my arm is about to explode, I go for walk in surgery, have them open me up, drain it, extract tissue for analysis, dress, bandage, give me a shot and prescription medicine. The point of my rambling is this, the trip to the hospital cost me $748 after insurance for nothing but the emergency surgery that fixed me up cost me $66.

I understand about all the BS of coverage, deductible, blabla, insurance crap. But does it make sense to the patient?

now, excuse me while i head out for a ride. short window of weather here in St. Louis with no rain and i'm gonna take advantage of it.

somebody (can't remember who) liked to talk about "skin in the game"
people who want single payer (someone else, prolly rich, at least richer than me) have no skin in the game, and tend to overuse the system for minor things.  Check out how many people will call the ambulance and go to the ER for minor pronblems.  Its "free" so they don't care about the actual costs because they don't have skin invested.  Govt bureaucrats don't care because they will get paid regardless no matter how much fraud and waste occcurs.  

While their are abuses by insurance companies, there is some recorse available, think the bureacrats will care? pfft.

Jerry there will be a generic for Plavix next year, I take it also. Another expensive heart med I take is Avapro. My copay is $50 on it. Next year there will be a generic for it. The 5.2% came off the link Webster posted. Knowing Webster I'm guessing it was the highest figure he could find.

Serowbot wrote on 05/13/11 at 14:32:33:

He's gone riding, now lets have fun at his expense LOL. He accuses us of being out of touch with Americana, yet he comes up with statements like "have you priced a new BMW 1200?" How many average Americans and people on this forum care about the price of a BMW 1200? Who's out of touch