Insurance Companies Invest In Fast Food For Easy Profit, Despite Public Health Concern

cnn.com:

According to Harvard Medical School researchers, 11 large companies that offer life, disability, or health insurance owned about $1.9 billion in stock in the five largest fast-food companies as of June 2009.

Read the whole story: cnn.com

Comments

[thymeafterthyme]

11:03 PM on 04/19/2010

Do the study's authors or anyone else really believe that the insurance companies are going to be a force for good and pressure McDonald's and all the other fast food companies they are involved with to change their menus-- or become the Center for Science Interest overnight.

The bottom line is that the companies look after their bottom lines.

When it comes to looking after kids with preexisting condtions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/health/policy/31health.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/existing-high-risk-pools_n_540105.html#postComment

When it is time to pay people when they get ill:.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G2DO20100317

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/demons-and-demonization/

http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php

[drymartini3]

02:29 AM on 04/19/2010

Its a nice way to hedge future high costs.

and why are people against this idea?

[chillwind]

01:43 AM on 04/19/2010

Ha! It's almost like they're indirectly shorting themselves. How rich! (in multiple ways)

[Harrier]

10:36 AM on 04/18/2010

This is something that was in the movie documentary called "Food."

[Carl Caroli]

06:45 AM on 04/18/2010

For big corporations, it' all about money. Nothing but profits matter, which is why this country is headed down the tubes. When the profits for a few trumps the well being of the many, the games over.

[Emerson Crossjostle]

10:41 AM on 04/17/2010

cynical sins of synergy

[Thomasina Jefferson]

09:05 AM on 04/17/2010

"The insurance industry cares about making money, and it doesn't really care how," says the senior author of the study, J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. "They will invest in products that contribute to significant morbidity and mortality if doing so is going to make money."
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I also wouldn't be surprised if the had investment in pharmaceutical companies for the same reason.
Got to love Capitalism.

[hulagirrrl]

06:16 AM on 04/18/2010

That's why health insurance companies should be non profit, just like prisons... oh well, maybe just maybe some banksters will actually get to serve time when it is all over.

[JScott]

02:47 AM on 04/17/2010

For her part, Bleich says that while health insurance companies, specifically, should be encouraged to divest their fast-food investments, encouraging self-regulation and competition in the fast-food industry may be a more effective way to make the industry healthier.

Typical response the truth being self regulation is no regulation and they would rather no one know about this.

I certainly hope they do a little THINKING first before doing something stupid like this, even if it is a
smaller $ amt as they say vs what the study sez.

Indeed it's when a corporation gets way too big that they probably don't even know they are doing this.

It's no wonder there are so many that want single payer healthcare. (but then again they have that in
Canada, and they have still have Tim Horton's their food is probably as bad for you as McD's and BK.)

[HJS2010]

12:24 AM on 04/17/2010

Investing in death!

[sarabono]

01:42 AM on 04/19/2010

Pizza Hut and Taco Bell is DEATH?

Give me a break..........

[Vyvjala]

10:23 PM on 04/16/2010

So when policy holders are told that their rates will increase, is this one of the reasons why? Billions of dollars in stocks bought with policy holder's premiums. They're making vulgar profits and giving insurance CEO's multi million dollar bonuses and stock options while screwing their policy holders.

[mooklyn]

02:15 PM on 04/16/2010

But wait- don't they loose if you eat all that fast food? Now if they were pharmaceutical companies, I could understand. As a health or life insurer, you don't want your contracts to compromise their health- that just means more benefit payouts. Shouldn't they be investing in Bally fitness and Whole Foods?

But, than again, always hedge your bets. . . .

[oldwhitewomantoo]

08:26 PM on 04/16/2010

It would seem that way, huh?

But, these investments might actually lead to lower benefit payouts, if, when they do their actuarial calculatgions, they have determined that people will DIE before those benefits have to be paid out.

But, I have a feeling that if we dig a bit deeper, these same companies have invested in companies that promote wellness, too. To hedge their bets, just as you said.

[Kevin Atlanta]

02:10 PM on 04/16/2010

With a position of "interest" in health care it would make sense for these Corporate Communists to tend to caring for people's health. The only concern is the health of Wall Street and the returns on "investment" and what do the policy holders get? Denied coverage for the cardiac care from a lifetime of junk food.
Single Payor, Universal Medicare and put the Corporate Communists out of business.

[olivia]

01:38 PM on 04/16/2010

Insurance companies are sharks and leeches, and the sooner we get a public option the better.

[davidwayneosedach]

01:26 PM on 04/16/2010

They sell the poison. Then the cure. While making a tidy profit!

[AKaurora]

01:01 PM on 04/16/2010

When everything is about money, investments such as these would be classified as wise. There is no morality connected to money. The only morality is making more, not less. Therefore, there are no social responsibilities, no following the so-called spirit of the law, no real reason to follow the law other than not getting caught. It makes perfect sense for insurance companies to invest in fast food companies as those have proven to be somewhat recession-proof. The only downside is that by supporting companies that are directly responsible for an increase in obesity and diabetes, there will be increased payouts insurance-wise, which of course they can get around by denying claims or canceling policies. I'm also sure that most insurance companies have invested heavily into the Pharma companies for the drugs that they allow on their plans.