Community | February 12, 2010 | 54 comments

Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009

source: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/top-health-insurers-posted-57-percent-profit-gains-2009/

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SleepDirt
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.

A lobbyist for American's Health Insurance Plans, the trade group that represents insurers in Washington, D.C., attributed the gain in 2009 profits to a poor performance in 2008. In 2008, insurers were forced to write down their stock holdings because of the US market's declines. Insurance companies keep a great deal of money in the markets, earning interest from the time between premiums are paid and the time when health providers are paid.

"It is disingenuous to look at the profits at one company today compared to where it was in the depth of a recession," Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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54 comments // Top five health insurers posted 56 percent profit gains in 2009

  • Introspective
    • 0
      Introspective  

    • i can juz picture the wall st. wizards right now as they do a lil jig round the desk with gleeful eyes pondering their next scheme...after juz getting trillions of tax-payers $...they c the opportunity again to make a killing (pun intended) @ the public trough ...u can rest assured that the wall st. braintrusters r burnin the mid-nite oil devising better wayz to squeeze mo profit outta theze HC-Providerz...theze unscrupulous purveyors of permanent poverty have no shame of unmitigated financial skullduggery...ways they can squeeze mo profit & devise mo wild speculative gambitz...the boyz in the back crunchin numbers bettin on who will live & who will die & bundling up mo batches of duplicitous derivatives on the whim of their calculus...alwayz lookin fo wayz to deny medical services & @ the same time razing premiums...forever scheming of another way to make an extra billion off of the masses...theze r the men & women who r help up as the best & the brightest, the titans of american capitalism for whom we r nothin mo than a # on the ledger of profit & loss!

    • 2 years ago
  • courage
    • 0
      courage  

    • how dare anyone make a profit soon we will have to siez Ford they almost made a profit last quarter there shall be no profit in the socialist states of america except by the glorius goverment

    • 2 years ago
  • TheTops
    • 0
      TheTops  
    • courage:

      It's one thing to make a profit, it's a totally different thing to benefit from other peoples' misery. I'm not sure why it is that you prefer that we continue to live in a system that benefits the rich and leaves the poor s.o.l, but I'd like to hear a better argument than "socialism." Have a real thought, otherwise stop posting right wing talking points. Do you honestly not understand how insurance works? The more people involved in a pool, the better coverage for all of them. What is the point of having multiple smaller providers competing, the entire concept of insurance is to minimize risk for individuals by spreading it out among more people. You fear socialism, yet you live in a society that relies on each other to buy and sell things, with one another. Get your facts straight, because I'd really like to hear them. And that goes beyond just you courage, I don't mean to just pick on you, I want to hear from anyone that shares your view.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • I am with occhipij on this,.....we should change the law.
      ( Just me on this sentiment,......we should also be employing strong dexterous men and women as headsmen,....er,.....headspersons. Make that Decapitators. An old profession, but at least an honorable one. We need to seriously prune back the members of that insurance "health profession"; knaves, liars, swindlers, gamblers and cheats.)

    • 2 years ago
  • occhipij
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • occhipij:

      Thats the dumbest statement I have ever heard!! If thats the fact then why do CEO's take hundreds of millions of dollars a year in compensation instead of paying higher dividends to shareholders. And its not just the CEO, its the whole second tier of corporate officers who take a few hundred million more in total compensation for themselves. Most all of them come in compensation that they can claim on their taxes as capitol gains and only pay 15% in income tax.

    • 2 years ago
  • occhipij
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • occhipij:

      Their first resposibility is to the sharholders not their pockets.
      Do you have an IRA or a Keough? If so you own stock and your getting screwed by any company whose stock you own if their executives are taking gross bonuses.
      Now I am done arguing with you say , I will not respond.

    • 2 years ago
  • occhipij
  • EmperorThan
    • 0
      EmperorThan  

    • Why wouldn't they? That's like saying "Credit card companies showed a profit gain after raising interest rates across the board." SHOCKING!!!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • hoosierdaddy
  • jon_foshee
  • ocanada
    • +2
      ocanada  

    • "It is disingenuous to look at the profits at one company today compared to where it was in the depth of a recession," Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

      I would respond, "It is disengenuous to look at the profits at one company, and ever declare them more meaningful than even a single human life sacrificed for them. Let alone 2.7 million more lives."

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • ocanada:

      That is really quite a large line of BS. Both my wife and daughter are in the healthcare industry and health care is only minimumly affected by recessions. People do not choose when they get ill, have a heart attack, or severe injury. The elderly do not stop aging.
      Only a fool would believe that statement. Birth and death go on whether or not the economy goes in the crapper. Robert Zirkelbach is full of shit. Plastic surgey may fall off a little or other voluntary procedures but not general healthcare. As amatter of fact recession can increase stress resulting in lower immune system function and actually increase medical problems both physical and mental health.

    • 2 years ago
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • oh please those profits were made on the continued screwing of the American people! without health care reform these crooked insurance companies will continue to charge huge fees for coverage,denying coverage,and by picking only healthy people as clients! Without making them compete with lower cost government plans the screw job on the American people! How many cancer patients have died because procedures to save lives were refused by these companies? how many dead from serious illness after being dumped by these companies? Health care costs in this country are higher then anywhere else in the world! More people die here of serious medical issues then anywhere else in the world! I say enough! It's time to bring these scumbag insurance companies under some sort of control and make them compete! Many of these companies are guilty of the murder of countless medical patients to whom they either denied coverage for procedures or cut them off completely!

    • 2 years ago
  • mojojuju
    • -7
      mojojuju  

    • Leave it to Current to be one sided, biased, and to put the spin on regarding anything having to do with the insurance industry.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • tommic:

      Mojo can't help being an authoritarian corporatist. It has been over-exposed to right-wing propaganda to which it is acutely susceptible due to a missing gene.

    • 2 years ago
  • EdJoyProductions
  • ocanada
    • 0
      ocanada  
    • mojojuju:

      Sorry its a pre existing condition. By the way, I'm a hell of alot more than a pre existing condition, I'm a person and more than that an American citizen and that means I have the power to affect a positive change in the world. I don't have to stand up for the status quo. The National Anthem isn't named Wellpoint, its the Star Spangled Banner.

    • 2 years ago
  • Mark701
    • +5
      Mark701  

    • What really sad about this is that America, or anyone for that matter, doesn't need a for profit health care system. All health insurance companies do is distribute money to doctors and hospitals. A non-profit distribution system could do the exact same thing and not have to take a cut for their CEO or investors. For profit health insurance creates an unnecessary middle man who controls the cost of insurance for his own benefit.

      The failure of the public option is the clearest proof yet that corporate America has more power than the US government.

    • 2 years ago
  • VC1
    • 0
      VC1  

    • Is there a petition out stating this is a reason for health care reform, if not a public option, that would go to elected officials people might sign?

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
  • tommic
    • +1
      tommic  

    • Now who dosen't want health care reform? Stockholders in these companies!!
      These companies are complete leeches on society with no moral terpitude.

    • 2 years ago
  • snarly
    • 0
      snarly  

    • i read an article that says Anthem(wellpoint) is raising thier rates on indiviual policies by 39% in California. No we don't need health care reform, that would just make too much sense.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • JonRaymond
  • SleepDirt
  • Toughth
    • +1
      Toughth  

    • Theives. roobers and pirates. They use the system to kill by witholding essential services to those that have a very big need just to line thier own pockets with blood money. The Mafia probably gave them lessons. Instead of putting hits on people that they can't strong arm they just cut them off and let them die.

    • 2 years ago
  • ajrembert
    • +2
      ajrembert  

    • While I agree that healthcare shouldn't be an industry or the implementation of a business model, what Mr. Zirkelbach said is true. When I was 13 I got some allowance money from my mom every week. When I was 14 I got a job and made substantially more. My profits increasing from age 13 to age 14 wasn't indicative my underhandedness or anything of the sort. Granted I was spamming but even if I'd had a job pushing shopping carts I'd still be making more than I was the previous year. In the end, I see the root cause of the problem being that health care is for profit. How can something that's rooted in altruism and something rooted in selfishness coexist? At the expense of the selflessness that brought the medical profession to such social prestige.

    • 2 years ago
  • derk
    • +11
      derk  

    • In my opinion, the real story isn't that they made billions. The real story is that (ignorant) uninsured people continually vote for Republican candidates that perpetuate the practice.

    • 2 years ago
  • trut
  • eternal_springs
  • blackheartman
    • 0
      blackheartman  

    • I don't see where the current healthcare legislation would cause these scheisters to receive any less profit when the bills from either house would hand the pirate industry millions of new customers. I agree that if NOTHING is done, then these bastards will have their way with us. But nothing that I've seen proposed would stop them either. It may make them play a little fairer with those currently insured and you know they'll find ways around anything they don't want to do, but this new, bullshit-laden legislation being shoved in our faces will do nothing to prevent the insurance industry from raping the nation for profits.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • blackheartman:

      You are correct. However, doing nothing means not even an incremental step was taken under Democratic leadership, possibly opening the door for future improvements or positive amendments to the proposed legislation, something that is simply not possible when the GOP are in power, an eventually that will arise sooner or later.
      Even if the legislation sucks, arguably, nothing is still worse. I think...

    • 2 years ago
  • blackheartman
    • 0
      blackheartman  
    • SleepDirt:

      I think I understand where you, and so many others, are coming from. If you currently have health insurance and are making large premiums, then little incremental steps may provide you with a little relief, enough at least to make you willing to wait for all of the other supposed changes to come. And if the legislation makes these miscreants behave even a little more fairly with their clients, then that's better than the treatment you've received from them in the past. Also, in larger, political terms these small steps may be the harbinger of a new renaissance in the way healthcare is distributed and paid for in this country. We may even end up with single-payer!

      If you do not currently have any health coverage, however, it can only be for one of a few reasons: either you cannot afford it, they will not insure you for some reason or you just don't want it. Maybe this legislation will help those who get denied by the insurance companies. Or maybe the insurance companies, as they do time and time again, will find away around any new criteria that they are compelled to follow. I will concede that the new legislation will probably, at least, make some companies insure more of those that they have denied in the past, but at what cost? Maybe this new legislation will reign in the exorbitant premiums and deductibles currently charged, maybe not.

      For those who are not currently covered because they cannot afford it (my case), I can't see anything good in either of these bills. The bottom line of any legislation that carries a public mandate is there has to be a public, government-run option. I don't have health insurance because I CANNOT AFFORD IT...........PERIOD. There is no discussion to be had on this one. I CANNOT AFFORD IT. It wasn't so long ago that the housing bubble was burst upon us. And what was the great lesson to be learned, according to the ptb? "People need to live within their means." So, living within my means means I do not incur a further monthly debt. Now these same MFers tell me, "Oh no, we weren't talking about insurance. We just meant you shouldn't be going out to eat, or buying a new television if you can't afford to. If you can't afford a new, costly insurance premium, weeeellllll, you're going to do it anyway." And please don't reiterate to me the whole "subsidies for low-income" argument. They are bullshit. I, like many others, are working and living just above the poverty level (which is set by the gov. at a very low level already). I will not qualify for (nor do I really want) free healthcare. But I also cannot afford even one more monthly bill (even if it is subsidized). That's why I'm not covered now.

      If I agree with your summation and jump on the bandwagon to support this legislation, I will not be around to enjoy the supposed benefits to come at some future, hypothetical time. By the time the insurance vampires are brought under control, by the time that we have a public option (or better yet, single-payer) it will be too late for me and many others. We will either be living out on the street due to lack of income to pay the bills because we'd been giving it hand over fist to these pricks, or in jail because we failed to do so.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • blackheartman:

      Move here to Massachusetts and you can have healthcare. Yup were liberals everyone loves to hate but if you can't afford we find away for you to get it. The state subsidizes health insurance for those who can't afford it. My sister was without health insurance until we changed here in Mass. now she only pays 1000 bucks a year full coverage

    • 2 years ago
  • blackheartman
    • 0
      blackheartman  
    • blackheartman:

      To conclude, my opinion is that the current bills both need to be scrapped and congress should start over. Whatever bill comes out in the end, it needs to be simple (like medicare for all, for example). And if the insurance bastards must be kept in the new framework, then there MUST be a public option. Without it, a public mandate is nothing short of extortion. I know the counter-argument claims that if we start over now, we'll have lost all momentum and will lose even the small amount of ground that we've gained since January. We may not even be able to get the movement in congress started again.

      Well, that just sounds like blackmail to me.

    • 2 years ago
  • blackheartman
  • device80
    • 0
      device80  

    • Just another reason these companies should stop operating (not literally, b/c we all know they usually deny that sort of expense) When did it become legal to decide if they want to cover you even when taking your money for years and years? death panels are gunna be the death of these life suppliers....

    • 2 years ago
  • 02
    • +3
      02  

    • 56% - !! - But that's after they paid themselves - and invested - and played every game their little minds and lawyers figured they could get away with.

      We, as a country, need to drop these middlemen.. Outlaw insurance for profit in vital services, such as health care.

      Let their assets convert and incorporate into a public one-payer system.

      We don't pay them for it, we offer the employees jobs in the new system, the companies just go into other business ventures, the end.

      Your yearly out-go, goes down. The doctors make more, health facilities get better, more financing to research - health technology gets better.

      This whole present system holds all of us back.

      Who has the balls to do something about it?

    • 2 years ago
  • snarly
    • -1
      snarly  
    • obamaisajoke:

      the problem with President Obama keeping his promises is that the republicans decided that a super majority was needed for any of them to come to fruition. They've balked on everything he's tried to do because they know that it'll work and they'll never be able to get into power again. All they've got in mind is keeping thier corrupt asses right where they are. It's time to throw all the bums out of office and let the people take back the government

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • +1
      CreditFigaro  

    • The health insurance companies rebutted that the growth was unfair because every industry was recovering from the recession.

      Unfortunately, that doesn't explain the dropping of clients relative to the increase in income and profits. The profits are just what go into EPS, don't forget the executive salaries and other overheads that are taken out before you calculate net profits.

      There is a racket agoing on, and it isn't just the insurance companies, either. Pharma has had it's cake, and so have the hospitals.

      Unfortunately for the for-profit healthcare providers, this article doesn't even touch the worst of the problem.

    • 2 years ago
  • KSirys
  • SleepDirt
  • KSirys
  • Progresshiv
  • Kari_Heaberlin
  • KSirys
  • EdJoyProductions
  • Guyatthebusstation
  • EdJoyProductions
  • fun_size
  • Lucretia_Gross
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