skeeter
Private insurance companies, whether profit or non-profit, have a motivation to identify fraudulent charges and not pay them. The motivation for a for-profit company is the desire to maximize profits. The motivation for a non-profit is to keep rates affordable.
Medicare also certainly has a motivation to not pay fraudulent charges. This article concludes that private insurance companies (again, some are for profit and others are non-profit) do a better job than medicare of not paying fraudulent claims.
I suppose it’s a matter of priorities and limited resources. The more time you spend trying to identify fraudulent claims, the more you’ll save money in not paying them. However, the more time you spend trying to identify fraudulent claims, the less money you’ll have to actually pay for medical care as opposed to overhead.
I think you guys are correct and I’m wrong, though. My guess is we will have a single-payer system within 20 years. Maybe sooner.