Reason Magazine hits the mark. The insurance corporations have dug their own graves. Unfortunately, everybody loses.
The truth is that companies don’t want competition; they want government guaranteed profits. Mesmerized by the prospect that an individual insurance mandate would provide them with tens of millions of new government-subsidized customers, private health insurers have allowed themselves to be maneuvered into an inexorable process that will lead to their destruction. In 2004, Berkeley economist Robinson warned that double digit growth in premiums and profits was unsustainable. “In the long term, health insurance will be either revitalized by the private sector, through product innovation and competitive entry,” wrote Robinson, “or disciplined by the public sector, through purchasing power and regulatory requirements.”
Emphasis is mine.