Comments on: Comparing Public to Private Health care stats from 2004 http://www.swampreport.com/economy/health-care-stats-from-2004/ Political, Economic, and Finance related commentary. J.D. Swampfox Associates report on battles for prosperity against the "Tarleton" of big government. Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:47:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: myxzptlk http://www.swampreport.com/economy/health-care-stats-from-2004/comment-page-1/#comment-362 myxzptlk Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:53:19 +0000 http://www.swampreport.com/?p=2347#comment-362 Can you really draw the conclusions in this post from these numbers? There are all sorts of factors - differential growth rates in the number of insured, ratio of insurance payments to fees, and the selective nature of private insurance (cherry picking for risk factors, no preexisting conditions) that make this an apples-to-oranges comparison. The only valid way to compare public and private insurance efficiency is using medical loss ratios, i.e., the ratio of insurance payments to insurance premiums. For private insurance, that ratio is about 80%, on average. For public plans like Medicare, it's well over 95%. See: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2006/march/medicalloss_ratios_.php. Can you really draw the conclusions in this post from these numbers? There are all sorts of factors – differential growth rates in the number of insured, ratio of insurance payments to fees, and the selective nature of private insurance (cherry picking for risk factors, no preexisting conditions) that make this an apples-to-oranges comparison.

The only valid way to compare public and private insurance efficiency is using medical loss ratios, i.e., the ratio of insurance payments to insurance premiums. For private insurance, that ratio is about 80%, on average. For public plans like Medicare, it’s well over 95%.

See: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2006/march/medicalloss_ratios_.php.

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