Should health insurance companies be for profit?

Is it time to scrap the entire system and start over? This article explores some opinions and thoughts on the issue...BD

Not only should health insurance companies be non-profit - they shouldn't exist, period. I just read that we spend 16% of our income in the United States for health care. That's ridiculous and unsustainable.
Then came the HMOs - health management organizations - and other members of that alphabet soup. Now its the HMO management trying to buy third homes in Nantucket. What, you might ask, do these companies do? They say "no." We'll pay for this, they say, but not that. The more they say no the more money they get to keep.
Well, I say it's time to scrap the whole system. The government should take over health care management. Doctors and hospitals should be paid by the government. Malpractice laws should be reformed. Drug companies should be permitted to advertise prescription drugs only to doctors. Hypochondriacs should not be permitted to hog health care.