Comment by jmyeet

Welcome to the concept of "selection bias".

As another commenter put it, the government covers those with the highest cost of healthcare: veterans with varying degrees of disability, the elderly and the poor.

Another way to look at that is that insurance companies offload the highest cost people to the government so they can profit from the younger and healthier. How does that make sense?

You see this everywhere too, like with the push for privatization of education through charter schools and/or school vouchers. Some will point to the lower cost per student and completely ignore that the government education system doesn't get to be selective about students. State education caters to those with high-needs who are, just like with Medicare and the elderly, those that cost the most.