By nature, having health care completely privatized is a huge disservice to the people using it. Insuring people in anything is a huge crap shoot and in order to mitigate the risks in hopes of remaining at all profitable, insurance companies have to control costs as much as they can possibly get away with. It's the nature of the insurance business. It's not evil, it's just the way it is. Applying that principle to something such as health care is extremely counterproductive.
Considering the value placed on human well being and human life in our society it's just silly to set up a system where providing it comes in direct conflict with profit. It's a huge conflict of interests for the system as a whole. The health insurance industry exists for consumers to ensure that they can get adequate health care. Yet, at the same time, by having it completely privatized, a situation is created where the institutions which provide the insurance do so on the basis of profitability - that's the simple nature of a business, especially an incorporated one. It's a fundamental clash of function, more so than any other type of insurance or any other privatized industry.
There's really only one answer: the system has to be reworked in order to focus on one goal. I think when it comes down to being between dividends for shareholders and public health, any reasonable government in a well developed country would have to step in and decide that public health has to prevail.
That said, the reform that's there is a fucking joke.
