Maintaining profitability

I had to pass along this quote from Ezra Klein's column in the Washington Post:

Private insurance is a bit like a fire department that turns a profit by letting buildings burn down.

Klein discussed how, after the failure of Clinton's attempt at health-care reform, a form of unfettered managed care arose to become the predominant mode of health-care insurance. The problem with this mode, as it has played out, is that competition is reduced as insurance companies merge, concentrating power and control in the few megacompanies. People who need treatment are seen by the corporation as liabilities cutting into profits. The reality is that now most Americans have rather less choice than they once had. I'm sure somebody, somewhere, has noted that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market is giving us The Finger.

(Tipped off to this article by a post at Balloon Juice by DougJ.)