On: How much health insurers pay for almost everything...

[lotsofpulp]

It does if it results in them being able to sell policies at lower premiums than their competitors and hence earn more customers.

> Will my workplace ever switch their insurer provider of choice? Almost certainly 'no'.

Why not? I am an employer and we evaluate the cost of health insurance every year. It is a huge expense, so why would we not shop around?

[vkou → lotsofpulp]

> It is a huge expense, so why would we not shop around?

Because switching to a different provider can be a huge pain in the ass to your employees, whose multi-year treatments/doctors/etc may suddenly become out of network?

And it's probably not worth doing unless the cost delta is truly staggering?

[lotsofpulp → vkou]

That goes for switching any almost vendor. But it does give insurers an incentive to not runaway with pricing.