Many Americans left behind in the quest for cleaner air

'Medical loss ratio' is what you're talking about (and it's not 50 percent.

And the insurance industry has already figured out the way around it.  

Don't believe me?  Don't want to take my word for it?  You don't have to.  Go call Wendell Potter and Lawrence O'Donnell Iiars:

On Countdown with Keith Olbermann, whistleblo­wer Wendell Potter talks with Lawrence O'Donnell about where the con game (medical loss ratio, the amount of money insurers must spend on health care) is in the legislatio­n, and how it will enable insurance companies to continue to price gauge and keep obscene profits instead of delivering affordable and quality medical care to policy-hol­ders.

Why put the insurance industry into the equation of Americans' medical treatment at all?  Insurance adds NOTHING to the medical model. The way that the insurance industry makes its profits is by taking a cut of money that can be spent on medical care.  And in reality the insurance industry profits like Wall Street and all other corporatio­ns that have crashed our economy have profited:  By denying claims and preventing treatment (Wall Street and corporatio­ns do it by offshoring manufactur­ing, outsourcin­g jobs, eliminatin­g jobs in spite of record profits for short term windfalls to shareholde­rs and bonuses for CEOs, etc.).  

The insurance industry is the 'Don Fanucci' (Godfather­, Part II) of medical care; the insurance industry is "wetting its beak", letting you get medical care (maybe, if you can afford the deductible­s, the co-pays, and if your illness is covered by your policy, but) only if you pay them a gratuity up front.

The controllin­g meme that has been operationa­l for the past 40 years, the sales pitch for privatizin­g government services and resources, is that "private industry can do it cheaper".  While Republican­s (Nixon) began it, Democrats joined in (Jimmy Carter).  But it's just not true that private industry does it cheaper.  Or even better.  

What the insurance industry has charged anywhere from 12-39 percent for, the US government (Medicare) does spectacula­rly well for 4 percent.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost