I'm not one to defend health care insurance companies, but you need to at least get your facts straight. For example, United Health care, the largest such insurer in the nation, had profits of
$3.8 billion last year on revenues of $87 billion. That's a whopping 3.7% profit margin.
Few things.
1. "Profits" are only excess money after paying everyone in the company, included insane CEO salaries, and every other expenditure, when combined with fancy accounting to reduce what is called "profit."
2. Your numbers prove that despite all of this and insane pays, an excess of $3.8 billion was withheld from actually paying for peoples' coverage. Denying care, BS "preexisting conditions" clauses, and outright illegally dropping people of care is quite common. Hard for people to fight for it once they are dead though.
3.
"In the midst of a deep economic recession, America's health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent in 2009, a year that saw 2.7 million people lose their private coverage. "
"Even so, insurance companies have also offloaded their most expensive patients by cancelling their policies and raising premiums drastically, Kirsch asserted in a Thursday press call.
Among the report's findings on specific insurance companies:
Wellpoint increased profits 91 percent from 2008 while it chopped 3.9 percent of its total enrollment.
United Health's profit increased 28 percent from 2008, while enrollment dropped by 3.4 percent.
Cigna's profit increased 346 percent and enrollment dropped 5.5 percent.
Humana's profit increased by 61 percent while enrollment decreased by 1.7 percent.
Aetna was the only company with a drop in profit and a gain in enrollment. The company's profit declined by 8 percent from 2008, and enrollment grew by 7 percent. "
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HealthCare/health-insurers-post-record-profits/story?id=9818699
4. How do you make more profit while covering less people? Easy.
""They confuse their customers and dump the sick all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors," said Wendell Potter, who retired as CIGNA's vice president of corporate communications last year. He spent nearly 15 years at the company and four years at Humana."
"Potter, for instance, recalled a trip on a corporate jet from Philadelphia, where CIGNA is headquartered, to Connecticut, where the company's health insurance business is based in Bloomfield. During the flight, he was served lunch on gold-rimmed china with a gold-plated knife and fork.
"I realized for the first time that someone's insurance premiums were paying for me to travel in such luxury," he said on his blog."
"He condemned insurers' efforts to get rid of unprofitable customers, sell policies that can mislead consumers and offer very limited coverage, and pay out as small a portion of premiums as possible for claims in order to boost profits and please Wall Street."
"Potter described in written testimony how insurers use "purging" unrealistic rate increases to drive off less profitable employers. Citing a USA Today report, he recalled how CIGNA boosted rates in 2006 for the Entertainment Industry Group Insurance Trust so much that for some family plans, premiums would have topped $44,000 a year."
"CIGNA, responding to Potter's testimony, said Wednesday, "Although we respect that there are different opinions on the solutions, we strongly disagree with the suggestion that, motivated by profits, the insurance industry has deliberately attempted to confuse or unfairly treat covered individuals.""
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-cigna-potter.artjun25,0,4107201.story
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