Had to look it up myself. I think it refers to Group Member Organizations, which would be the health insurance providers.
When you really think about it, health insurance companies are a bizarre sort of consumers’ union. Your insurance company negotiates prices with providers on your (and their own) behalf leveraging their buying power based on the size of the group. That was probably a good thing at one time, but now the system is so completely broken that if you try to get the same procedure done without insurance, and it’ll cost you double or triple what it would cost the insurance company.
Insurance is a bit of a scam. It’s sold as this rosy little co-op, where everyone contributes to a pot of money, then if someone suffers hardship they can withdraw from the pot to cover the cost. This falls apart when you have a 3rd party who manages the pot, determines how much people pay in and if and how much can be paid out, and also derives their income from the pot, at a rate they set themselves. This is an inherent conflict of interest, and makes insurance much more like casino gambling than what they advertise. Just like casino gambling, the house always wins, at the customers’ expense.
Sorry, what does GMO mean in this context?
Had to look it up myself. I think it refers to Group Member Organizations, which would be the health insurance providers.
When you really think about it, health insurance companies are a bizarre sort of consumers’ union. Your insurance company negotiates prices with providers on your (and their own) behalf leveraging their buying power based on the size of the group. That was probably a good thing at one time, but now the system is so completely broken that if you try to get the same procedure done without insurance, and it’ll cost you double or triple what it would cost the insurance company.
Insurance is a bit of a scam. It’s sold as this rosy little co-op, where everyone contributes to a pot of money, then if someone suffers hardship they can withdraw from the pot to cover the cost. This falls apart when you have a 3rd party who manages the pot, determines how much people pay in and if and how much can be paid out, and also derives their income from the pot, at a rate they set themselves. This is an inherent conflict of interest, and makes insurance much more like casino gambling than what they advertise. Just like casino gambling, the house always wins, at the customers’ expense.
I typed horribly wrong, HMOs. However, the other person’s explanation seems to work well too.