Jake,
I'm not saying the scheme is perfect or that it is immune to political meddling, but it is not driven by profit and is incentivized to prevent injury and reduce consumer cost rather than riding the coattails of yearly increases. This sort of socialized insurance can work really well. It is worth noting that the scheme tries to purchase care from public providers but if it cannot, it happily pays private facilities to perform the work.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
