Insurance profits seems to make up only about 1% of our total private healthcare expenditures. However, that doesn't take into account the amount of those healthcare expenditures that are being spent to generate those profits rather than to provide healthcare. It also doesn't account for the additional costs to non-insurers from systemic problems created and maintained insurers to increase their profits. (E.G. pushing filing/approval costs onto physician's offices or systemically fixing prices).

So while Insurance company profits are not the direct cause of the outlandish healthcare costs in the US, they are a huge contributor to our problem and a core driver for many of it's multitudinous factors.