Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009

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Brain -> Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 3:34:23 AM)
Health care in America continues to decline in the interest of supporting obscene profits and bonus for the very rich. Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 \| Raw Story If no health care overhaul passes Congress, health insurers may be in for a windfall -- and one far larger that most Americans probably realize. According to a study by a pro-health reform group published Thursday, the nation's largest five health insurance companies posted a 56 percent gain in 2009 profits over 2008. The insurers including Wellpoint, UnitedHealth, Cigna, Aetna and Humana, which cover the majority of Americans with insurance. The insurers' hefty profit gains came even as 2.7 million more Americans lost their insurance coverage due to the declining economy. "Insurers will - perversely - try and blame the economy for their record-breaking fortunes, saying employers have been shedding jobs and therefor dropping insurance coverage, leading to a decrease in customers," a press release for Health Care for America Now said. "And they're certainly right in the sense that less jobs equals less employer-based health coverage, but that obscures the fact that employers have been steadily dropping health coverage for more employees for 15 years - even during good times - because the insurance industry's prices keep skyrocketing much faster than inflation." "None of the excuses can explain away the basic reality that insurers make more money when they insure less people. They can pay their CEOs more ("administrative costs" rose this year) when they can charge the healthy exorbitant prices and drop or deny these loyal customers when they become sick and therefore expensive," the release added. http://rawstory.com/2010/02/top-health-insurers-posted-57-percent-profit-gains-2009/

pahunkboy -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 5:59:54 AM)
the idea IS to make money. right? the whole reform thing is a fraud. Why? Because we dont allow foreign countries to sell here. Think about it. They have it together- proper management. So let them manage. Let them compete. I just don't know how to break the bad news to you. Shhh. The deck is stacked.

DarkSteven -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:13:43 AM)
This should not be possible, that prices and profit margins continue to climb while people are complaining that it is unaffordable. If it's that profitable, there should be numerous startups competing for business. I suspect some kind of barriers to starting an HMO. Legislatively created.

mnottertail -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:33:57 AM)
just like when the last gas crisis was, and the energy companies made record profits.... Yeah, nothing broken in our system.

DomImus -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:48:38 AM)
Totally erroneous if you do not factor in profit margins. If I made a dollar last year and make $1.56 this year I have realized a 56% increase. Next!

mnottertail -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:51:24 AM)
What the fuck?

domiguy -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:57:09 AM)
I believe that virtually every country that has a socialized health system has not for profit health ins companies. They have severe limitations on law suits, run it in a fashion similar to how we run medicare with pre ordained caps placed on what doctors get paid for services. How much should companies profit off something as basic and necessary as health care? Doctors make less. Malpractice insurance costs go down dramatically. Medical school costs are subsidized by the gov't. Doctors who now pursue their craft due so because they want to be doctors not because they are chasing the almighty dollar. They still get paid but there is somewhat of an altruistic reward in being a doctor which should be enough to draw the dedicated to this profession. You have a system where everyone has an health ins I.D. card. Your picture is on it, and all of your health care history is available when the card is logged in. If there are any profits left they are immediately forwarded to me.

pahunkboy -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 7:00:58 AM)
but don't they have a right to have lots of money?

DarkSteven -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 7:18:41 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DomImus Totally erroneous if you do not factor in profit margins. If I made a dollar last year and make $1.56 this year I have realized a 56% increase. Next! Good point, DonImus. Ron, DI is saying that the companies did not post profit margins of 56%, which is how I had misread the article. Their profit margins are 56% higher than last year, but it does not state what those margins actually WERE. If they were 2% last year and 3% this year...

mnottertail -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 7:30:44 AM)
well, after the billions laid out in lobby and humongous bonuses for top execs, bailouts and whatnot, my heart pumps purple piss for them if they little over halfed again their profit margins. The what the fuck has to do with the entire context here, Steven.

Jeffff -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 7:36:08 AM)
Great Ron, now that you have posted it here, your heart pumping purple piss, is a pre-existing condition. HMODom

windchymes -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 1:18:15 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Jeffff Great Ron, now that you have posted it here, your heart pumping purple piss, is a pre-existing condition. HMODom That, and it sounds like you have the basis for a really profitable lawsuit, cause somebody hooked your plumbing up backwards!

Brain -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 1:59:51 PM)
I don't know what you're talking about. Most people believe their profits are excessive because it's true and it is. quote: ORIGINAL: DomImus Totally erroneous if you do not factor in profit margins. If I made a dollar last year and make $1.56 this year I have realized a 56% increase. Next!

MrRodgers -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 2:15:52 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DarkSteven This should not be possible, that prices and profit margins continue to climb while people are complaining that it is unaffordable. If it's that profitable, there should be numerous startups competing for business. I suspect some kind of barriers to starting an HMO. Legislatively created. You've been reading the writing on the wall...whatever one thinks of 'capitalism' our brand has turned our culture into one almost all about money. Our govt., acting as always...in the interest of the capitalists has allowed the overall market to become far too concentrated, vertically integrated and...very, very profitable. Hence this report cited in this OP, which equals about 18 times inflation. Overall, insurance cos. are making 22% return on all of their money and what we get from them in public (media, news etc.) are outright lies. Who wants the money ? The insurance cos., the Hosp. Corp., the doctors and their 'services,' the drug cos. When one adds all of the 'profits' or 'income' for each of these 'markets' is the reason we are paying $2 for every $1 the other industrial nations are paying and for the pleasure of being generally sicker and dying younger.

DomImus -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:10:08 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Brain I don't know what you're talking about. Most people believe their profits are excessive because it's true and it is. I know you don't understand. I'm talking facts. Most people are full of shit, then. Read it and weep. "Overall, the profit margin for health insurance companies was a modest 3.4 percent over the past year, according to data provided by Morningstar. That ranks 87th out of 215 industries and slightly above the median of 2.2 percent. By this measure, the most profitable industry over the past year has been beverages, with a 25.9 percent profit margin. Right behind that were healthcare real-estate trusts (firms that are basically the landlords for hospitals and healthcare facilities) and application-software (think Windows). The worst performer was copper, with a profit margin of minus 56.6 percent." You read some article on the web and bang - off to cut and paste and post the link. You don't bother to do any research. You don't bother to independently verify facts. What's that old saying? "Better to remain silent and let others think you are a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."?

DomImus -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:12:25 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: mnottertail What the fuck? If I had the capacity to explain subjects in a manner that you could understand, I would. But I lack that capacity.

DarkSteven -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/16/2010 6:24:08 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Brain I don't know what you're talking about. Most people believe their profits are excessive because it's true and it is. quote: ORIGINAL: DomImus Totally erroneous if you do not factor in profit margins. If I made a dollar last year and make $1.56 this year I have realized a 56% increase. Next! "It's true and it is"? Brain, DomImus went and pulled up a source stating that the margin was 3.4% (which implies that it was about 2.1% the prior year). That's not at all excessive. Please provide a source to counter instead of simply stating your opinion as though it counted as fact.

eyesopened -> RE: Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009 (2/17/2010 5:29:31 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Brain I don't know what you're talking about. Most people believe their profits are excessive because it's true and it is. quote: ORIGINAL: DomImus Totally erroneous if you do not factor in profit margins. If I made a dollar last year and make $1.56 this year I have realized a 56% increase. Next! Brain based on some of your recent posts you wouldn't know truth if it slapped you in the face. (Which, by the way, it has... on many occassions) I worked for a BCBS company for many years. We were set up as a mutual insruance company and not for profit. We did not make one single dime on premiums. We made money like banks do. You deposit your money and the bank pays YOU. How does this work you may ask? Through the use of your money. At the bank, you still have your money plus interest paid to you. In health insurance you may have a million dollars worth of coverage for a mere $60 a month. You would have to pay monthly premiums for 1,388 years to equal the million dollars. What is wrong with insurance is not the fact that they can make money on the use of your money but the fact that they can and do disallow treatments, services, clinical trials, and can flat out refuse to insure you based on things like not having continuous coverage or pre-exisitng conditions.

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