Don’t blame insurers

Russell Brethauer’s Aug. 6 letter against insurers and their profits unfortunately distracts from the real drivers of health care costs (“Greed drives health care”).

Essentially, insurers do not create, they pass through costs. Insurer profits are a small blip compared to the real health care cost drivers.

Insurers do not own or operate the huge campuses of hospitals, clinics and medical buildings. Insurers do not own or operate the vast array of costly medical equipment. Insurers do not employ the high-paid doctors, nurses, physician assistants, technicians, etc., that make up the health care workforce. Insurers do not research, manufacture and advertise the ever more expensive prescription drugs that proliferate everywhere — even in the streets.

Most important of all, insurers do not create the American consumer’s health status or insatiable appetite for health care. Exploding obesity, drug addiction, self-indulgence, smoking, obsession with the latest drug, etc., are the greatest cost drivers of all.

As President Donald Trump is learning, health care is complex — but it is not inscrutable. Health care costs can go down, but not if we continue to chase red herrings and scapegoats, such as insurers and their profits.

David W. Croysdale Mequon