Lott's Numbers: Obama's Top 2 Most Outrageous Health Care Myths : John R. Lott, Jr

President Barack Obama, September 9Two progress all the time in the healthcare, health care , debate: 1) that there is little, health, health care , care ,, health care , competition between those health insurance and 2) it is important to take the profit motive of providing health insurance. Both are myths. The allegations that have less competition based on a misinterpretation of the data and the non-profit insurers are so abundant that the largest insurer in almost every state is a non-profit.You would probably never find one of these points of listening to the news. Supporters of government-provided health insurance, as President Obama, argue that such a government option is needed to inject competition into the market. "Insurers, health care , and their allies do not like this idea, or that would promote more competition," Mr. Obama warned Saturday during a weekly radio address at the end of August. Even those who support an option for a government concerned about the lack of competition. "There is a serious problem with the lack of competition among insurers," said Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. "The impact on consumers is important, health care , ." Several studies point to how concentrated the health care insurance market. A 2008 study by the American Medical Association shows that one or two health insurance providers dominate the market in most states, implying that the providers would, health care , operate on a monopoly-like situation to generate "excessive" profits.Click, health care , here with table a layout view. But they let the fact that for most people is, health care ,,, health care , health care , their employer, not the insurance, which pays for poor health. The company that makes the companys own pocket. The insurance companies do what they themselves or self-finance their plans,, health care , and that happens for about 55 percent of the employees to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the Department of Health and Human Services.Take Maine, Senator Snowe's state, as an example . As the two largest insurance companies seem, health care , to control 88 percent of the market. Well Point Inc. and constitute the major, health care , part of that, with 78 percent. What isn't clear that these figures only deal with privately insured, health care , patients are insured by insurance companies. Slightly more than half of the privately insured in Maine (52.1 percent) get their insurance through their employers "self insure." These companies only hire other companies to the paper work. Well Point Inc really provides primary or "full" insurance to 78 percent of the market not covered by self-insurers. Doing the math indicates 78 percent x (1 to 52.1%), health care , = 37.1 percent of the total market in Maine. The second largest insurer has only 4.8 percent of the total market.For Alabama, instead of the almost 90% owned by one company, as the President proposes, the correct number is 36 percent. The second largest company had only 2.1 percent of the market.Click here to view a table with only 37 percent breakdown.Not a lot less concentrated than 78 percent, but 52.1 percent which is very self-insurers competitive. Thousands of employers in Maine are self-insurers, and they compete for, health care , workers not only on the, health care , basis of the wages they pay, but also the benefits they offer.It, health care , is not just Maine. We can look at the 15 "top" states, with the highest market share, health care , taken by the two largest insurance companies. The pattern is pretty similar. Average more than 57 percent of people with insurance in those countries get their insurance companies of self-insure.So what about President Obamas claim that 34 states in the most concentrated declares 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five, health care , or fewer companies ? Given that self-insured companies cover 57 percent of the insured in those states, the correct total market share of five largest companies control 32 percent, not 75 percent.Ernie Clevenger, publisher of My health guide (a self-insurance newsletter ), told FOX News that he estimates that approximately 900 Third Party Administrators (TPAs) are hired by companies that self-insured companies to their policy of treating employees. A major difference in primary or full service insurance is that TPAs TPAs able to compete in lines.These handle customer service, ability to deal with health, and can handle the legal requirements. Most employees receive an insurance card and many of these drivers wrongly believe that the insurance company on the map the one providing the