Aetna misled public about reasons for quitting Obamacare

[Tacachale]

It isn't the profits that are the problem. In fact, that's a large part of what drives the industry to do as much research as they do - research that simply wouldn't be done if these companies weren't doing it. The real problem is the cost of healthcare in the U.S., which is higher than virtually any other country. The ACA didn't tackle that and it seems unlikely that any future plan will succeed without it.

If it's so expensive, where is the money going ? I understand that advances in medicine have also resulted in more expensive equipment, treatment and testing but is the increased cost only due to this ?

Part of the increased cost is the considerable investment private entities put into research. Companies simply would not do it if they weren't making a profit, and considering the fact that the government already heavily subsidizes research, it could not easily be replaced by additional government spending. If our private entities continued to decrease their research, there are really only two outcomes: either Europe and Asia vastly increase their research output to make it up, which isn't very likely, or it just doesn't get done.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1311068?query=featured_home&

However, this is only one factor in the high cost of American healthcare. Even besides the medicines, we also have higher prices for doctors and treatments in the U.S. than elsewhere. We also have naturally high administration costs compared to single-payer systems, and more of our population gets more medical care than other countries. Plus our population is aging and needing more care.

I have no idea what will work, but I do know that our healthcare system won't get any better until the costs come down substantially.