Originally posted by: senseamp
Originally posted by: Patranus
Originally posted by: senseamp
Originally posted by: JS80
Apple has like a 15% profit margin. Why don't they vilify them?
Apple creates products and services. It contributes to GDP. Insurance companies simply take a cut of healthcare spending, they don't actually provide any health care themselves. If you think they do, go to insurance company headquarters instead of hospital next time you are sick.
Using your logic Apple does not provide a single product. According to you Apple didn't actually create an iPhone, FoxConn created the iPhone. Go to Apples headquarters and try and find the Apply manufacturing plant.
Oh, by the way, Kaiser Permente owns all of its hospitals and is continuously building new hospitals...So yes, insurance companies do "create" healthcare.
Apple designed the iPhone. Most of the value of that phone is in the design, not manufacturing. Take away the Apple design and software, and you have a worthless piece of plastic. So Apple created value and is being rewarded for it.
This cannot be said for insurance companies. They have not created any healthcare product or service, but simply positioned themselves as middleman who takes a cut of the action without doing anything for the consumer's health.
Kaiser is exception, because it is a health-care provider, not just insurer. Purely insurance like Aetna, UnitedHealth, Cigna etc don't create any healthcare. They don't add value to the economy, simply take a cut and are a net drag on the economy.