Health Insurance Companies Make Record Profits As Many Americans Postpone Care

The New York Times:

The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care.

Read the whole story

Comments

[Gadgetman]

05:05 PM on 07/04/2011

For-profit health insurers are one of the evils of capitalism. No other country in the world allows them and we pay more than any other country. And the research shows that we are not getting more for our money. But the executives at those companies sure are! And they thanks their lobbyists everyday.

[romano70]

10:25 PM on 06/01/2011

The insurance companies are not making enough money so what do repupigs do? They hand them Medicare in a silver platter....they are just disgusting....why do these ignorant pricks in the south keep voting them, is beyond me...

[Bob Centilli]

02:07 AM on 05/26/2011

I'm not a journalist, but if I were you can make sure I would be trying to find out who exactly wrote to Paul Ryan bill. According to a former insurance executive Wendell Potter "it is a plan the insurance companies dreamed up." Paul Ryan is just a salesman.

[blueken]

10:53 AM on 05/18/2011

My employer pays $1,700 a month for my family health insurance plan. My wife recently became very ill. She ended up in the hosptial for 4 days. My co-pay for the ER was $50, my co-pay for the hospital was $500 and my insurance company refused to pay for the anti-biotic the doctor prescribed, that cost me $180 out of pocket. So my wife's illness cost me $730. We are fortunate that we can afford the expense, but what if we couldn't? A lot of people don't have that much cash readily available. What happens to them? Stop the madness. Illness shouldn't be a business. What did Jesus charge to cure the lepers and the blind?

[My five cents]

01:33 PM on 05/17/2011

Here's the TRUTH.
Moreover, German health insurance has more generous benefits than U.S. policies cover. There are never any deductibles, for instance, before coverage kicks in. And all Germans get the same coverage.

For instance, the Casagrandes' insurance covers an expensive medicine Jan needs for a chronic intestinal problem. He says if they moved to America, they might not be able to buy insurance at all because of their pre-existing conditions — a nonproblem in Germany.

"He says for himself — or for us — the health care system in the United States is the major reason why we have never moved there, and never will move there. Because both of us have chronic illnesses that have to have a lot of medical attention, and we would go broke," Sabina says, translating for Jan.

Jan adds something else. "It's also the No. 1 reason in the United States that people personally go bankrupt," Sabina translates, "which would never happen here ... never!"

[My five cents]

01:30 PM on 05/17/2011

Mention European health care to an American, and it probably conjures up a negative stereotype — high taxes, long waiting lines, rationed care.

It's not that way in Germany. Very little tax money goes into the system. The lion's share comes, as in America, from premiums paid by workers and employers to insurance companies.

German health benefits are very generous. And there's usually little or no wait to get elective surgery or diagnostic tests, such as MRIs. It's one of the world's best health care systems, visible in little ways that most Germans take for granted

[vietveter]

07:57 AM on 05/17/2011

People aren't holding off on treatment because they don't want to spend the money for gas to get to the provider; they are holding off because they dont have the money for the co-payment with the $hltty job and benefit package they have. They are frightened of being fired for using the insurance

[Caseybug]

02:40 AM on 05/17/2011

There are certain issues, not all, that the American people should be allowed to vote on, and our representatives should have to abide by. Just to name two, universal health care and getting out of our wars.

[vietveter]

08:02 AM on 05/17/2011

I like the idea that the country I call mine wants to care for all of her citizens.


You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow

[FaceReality2]

03:14 PM on 05/16/2011

There is a conflict of ethics in this country. Republicans just don't care whether or not their fellow citizens have health insurance or access to health care. On the other hand, most Democrats feel the country has a moral obligation provide health insurance and health care to its people--the same moral judgment the citizens of every other industrialized country has made.

When I stated that insurance companies, particularly in the individual market, routinely deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and depression, a wingnut replied as follows:

“Reality is severe. Of course there is always charity."

Republicans just don't give a cr@p about their fellow citizens. That is what is "exceptional" about Americans.

[castleblanca]

01:31 PM on 05/16/2011

"Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care"

And Tea Party members cheer!

[MrStat1]

04:01 PM on 05/16/2011

If you own stock in those companies I'd go cheer as well. It increases the value of your stock portfolio.

[OliviaBolivia27]

05:21 PM on 05/16/2011

And decreases the value of the lives of those who can't afford routine health care!

[2crudedudes]

12:53 PM on 05/16/2011

So you're telling me that if I continue paying for a service I don't use, the entity proving me this "service" is going to profit majorly? That's insane, I don't buy that.

[RedDog79]

12:08 PM on 05/16/2011

if we all die - they'll have no profits.

[eskeeemo]

12:04 PM on 05/16/2011

To quote Chris Rock, "Insurance should be call in-case-sh*t-happens. And if sh*t doesn't happen, shouldln't we get our money back?!" Makes sense to me!! I bet if we all sat down and figured out how much we pay for insurance vs. how much insurance pays for our care, plus everything we pay out of pocket that insurance doesn't cover, we'd all be sick. We are paying for profits for the insurance companies so they can put their names on football stadiums and useful stuff like that while we avoid our own healthcare needs because we fear what insurance will NOT pay for. It should NOT be this way. NO profits unless coverage is given. I don't think this is unreasonable. Apparently, big insurance does, though. Profits first, people second. We NEED a single-payer option in this nation. The ability to be healthy should NOT be optional.

[CarlJr7]

04:01 PM on 05/16/2011

Wow. Now that seems like a TOTALLY sustainable system...should you be able to get your car insurance premium back too if you don't get in an accident all year?

[eskeeemo]

12:39 PM on 05/17/2011

Sure! Why not? Insurance is a scam, is my point. You pay for something you hope never to use. Then, when you DO go to use it, they try to find a way NOT to cover you, or they raise your rates. You're telling me that's okay? As long as someone is making a profit, that's all that matters? Sorry, but I'm not on board with that.

[NoSandwiches]

08:34 AM on 05/16/2011

My deductible when from 1000 to 6000 at the same time my premiums went up. I can't afford to see the doctor unless the arterial blood can't be contained. What kind of crazy system will pay you 10,000 in benefits if your child dies, but if you take them to the emergency room it could cost you 6,000 + 20% of an arm and a leg? I care more about my son alive, but it just feels like my insurance company prefers otherwise....

[jeffp26]

08:23 AM on 05/16/2011

For a health insurance company, "PROFIT" equals "care not given." This is why Obama should have rolled all these for-profits up, and given us true universal, single payer health care.

But he bought the bs the industry was selling, and now these lowlifes are minting money.

[2crudedudes]

12:56 PM on 05/16/2011

something tells me Obama has been buying corporate BS for a long time.

[MrStat1]

04:02 PM on 05/16/2011

You keep forgetting Obama can't do it. Congress has to do it.

[jeffp26]

06:39 PM on 05/16/2011

BS. Obama had a chance to do it, and he promised to do it. If he can't do anything without congress, who needs him? Or do we need him to order deaths, for our "freedom?" Is a President merely the designated warmonger of this dopey democracy?