Excerpt: And how does the private insurance industry define equity in the pricing of health insurance premiums? The premium that 'EACH insured pays must reflect the expected cost of providing coverage to THAT insured,' but not 'an extra amount to make up for those paying less than cost.' So let's see how that would work in a system that finances health care for everyone. The 80 percent of individuals (243 million people) who use 20 percent of our national health expenditures ($479 billion) would each be responsible for $1970 in an equitable system, according to the insurance industry's version. The other 20 percent of individuals (61 million people) who use 80 percent of our national health expenditures ($1,915 billion) would each be responsible for $31,400 in AHIP's version of equity.  MORE >>