Why are health insurance premiums soaring?

... maybe, because health care costs are soaring! If only our legislators would wake up and smell the coffee (and quit drinking at the lobbyists' fountains).

This, from the Akron Beacon Journal:

More patients charged facility fees for doctors' visits.
The Akron Beacon Journal (2/14, Powell) reported, "Patients increasingly are being charged what is known as a 'facility fee' for services provided at physician practices and clinics owned by hospitals." Notably, "these fees are in addition to the amount consumers are charged for physician services, which insured patients often pay as a set co-pay per visit." And, "depending on the insurance plan, the facility fees can be subject to a deductible, meaning patients are stuck paying some, or all, of the unexpected bill." The Journal said that "facility fee charges are allowed under a rule by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services."


Charging such fees sure seems mercenary and greedy on the part of hospitals and doctors (just like the liberal left says about health insurers!).

But the real cost drivers ARE actual costs of receiving medical care in America, not the "greed of insurers"...mostly.