Insurance Companies

There seems to be an undue amount of sympathy for insurance companies these days from the right, in spite of the fact that they are exempt from antitrust laws. As a lawyer, I periodically deal with them. Workers Compensation carriers routinely deny claims when treatment gets expensive, requiring claimants to litigate. In long term disability insurance, the federal ERISA statute has preempted state law. If you appeal a denial of benefits, the first level is an appeal to the insurance carrier, and then you have to go to federal court under ERISA, which is heavily slanted in favor of the insurance companies. In medical insurance, claims are also routinely denied, forcing providers to appeal. And insurance companies work hard to get rid of those who are bigger health risks, even to the point of rescinding contracts on the basis of some minor mistake on the application. Think of all the expenses insurance companies have in working to deny claims. And all the expenses medical providers have in employing people to deal with the insurance companies, each with their own set of rules. This money seems wasted. I'm in favor of markets where they work, but this one doesn't seem to work. Joe asks why shouldn't we just have Medicare for everyone? I don't see that as a panacea, but that question deserves it's own separate post. The first question I'd ask is how that would deal with rising Medicare costs, which threaten to overwhelm the budget?