Report: Top five insurers made $12 billion in profits last year, dropped 2.7 million people

[kpete]

Source: politico

Report: Top five insurers made $12 billion in profits last year, dropped 2.7 million people

With health reform floundering, Democrats have renewed their attacks on the insurance industry and a new report out today hopes to bolster their case that insurance company practices need to be reigned in. The report finds that the top five largest for-profit insurance companies increased their profits by $12.2 billion last year while dropping coverage for 2.7 million Americans.

As a group, WellPoint, Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Cigna saw their profits jump 56 percent in 2009 up $4.4 billion over the previous year, according to the report. Four out of five companies saw profits increase while insuring fewer people. Cigna increased earnings by 346 percent while UnitedHealth shed 1.7 million beneficiaries. Aetna, which increased its membership and percentage of premiums spent on medical care, was the only company to see less income in 2009 than 2008.

"Increasing your profits, dropping people is a specific corporate strategy," said Richard Kirsch of Health Care for America Now, the progressive coalition that prepared the report. "What the big health insurance companies do to please Wall Street denies affordable health insurance to millions of Americans, millions more Americans every year."

The report comes as the Obama administration and House Democratic leadership have seized on Anthem Blue Cross' decision to raise rates by up to 39 percent in California. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote a letter to Anthem this week asking them to justify their rate hike and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman announced that his committee will hold a hearing on increases this month.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0210/Report_Top_five_insurers_made_12_billion_in_profits_last_year_dropped_27_million_people.html?showall

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Cool." - Republicon fatcat cronies

"This news is just ever so pleasing. We need to leave the freaking 'health care' system alone becuz it is working wicked pissah good now. For us (smirk). Can't wait till we get our cut of the swag. Too bad about you noisy American proles. Oh, and by the way, our new, improved republicon platform: MORE TAX CUTS FOR RICH REPUBLICONS. Smirk. Sneer. Smirk."

- Republicon fatcat cronies

[Jefferson23]

7. Complete theft, come on Democrats, show what you're going to do.

Maybe finally fight back? I sure as hell hope so, this is beyond contemptible.

[dflprincess]

76. No - they'll pass the bill that mandates we buy "coverage" from the crooks

with no public option and very little regulation to "keep them honest".

[peace13]

2. I hope that someone sends Kathleen a memo. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

3. "Reined in", not "reigned". Editor asleep at the wheel.

[Robb]

5. Ah, bloggers. nt

[enlightenment]

40. Don't bother -

it's a lost cause. There are people on this forum that will 1)actually argue that their usage is correct, because 'king's got out of control and they had to stop them' (or some-such nonsense); or 2)tell you that you're a spelling nazi who needs to get a life.

[demigoddess]

85. i happen to prefer spelling nazis. I hate it when you cannot understand the 'joke'

they are trying to tell. Usually, it does not make sense either. I also run across a lot of people who omit commas that would make things clearer.

[Mithreal]

105. poo poo, reign is more funny. Make that your number 3.

Spelling nazi!



jus kiddin :scared:

[No Elephants]

59. Nice catch. I'm glad you did not embarrass a DUer over it.

(At least, not that I know.)

I never understand why DUers who feel compelled to correct a fellow Duer's grammar, spelling, usage, word choice, redundancy, typos, etc. don't pm the poster/author about it instead of posting a correction.

A correction to an error in the OP article is very different, though.

[AllyCat]

4. We need more incentive for big corps because they employ so many people

NOT! Why do people continue to believe this meme?

Stop their anti-trust exemption as a great first step towards fixing this disparity.

[No Elephants]

62. Exactly! What's good for General Motors is good for America! Oh, wait....

[Enthusiast]

115. There should be NO anti-trust

exemption for any corporation. None. And THAT is hardly some wild eyed "liberal" position.

[AllyCat]

121. Should I have put the little sarcasm thingy?

[T Wolf]

6. Maybe if they drop eVERYONE (sending us to single-payer, universal care), their profits would

soar to infinity.

My math may be off, but isn't that the trend?

[demigoddess]

86. Businesses actually have been complaining about providing health coverage for decades

they claim it eats into their profits, costs them bookkeeping time and energy, they have to negotiate with unions over health care. Wouldn't it be easier to have single payer through the government than do all this work?? Why are they opposing health care single payer???

[Zoeisright]

8. I hate insurance companies.

They are murderers, pure and simple. And extortionists. Why no one has gone postal on an insurance company is simply beyond me.

[tsuki]

35. +1 billion

[GinaMaria]

57. People have in the past

Security is really tight for insurance companies. Has been for a while, even before 9/11. Employee badges are coded with access to only certain areas, can't get on elevator without a badge pass, can't get past the lobby unless someone signs their life away for you. More secure than Fort Knox. They've known the public's opinion of them for quite some time.

[defendandprotect]

68. We ALL hate insurance companies -- that's why they have to buy our elected officials --!!!

:evilgrin:

[Uncle Joe]

87. I honestly don't believe they think much of people either, human health is just a dollar game.

A legalized, instituted blood casino and the "health" insurance cartel is the house.

This is not to say people can't benefit from having for profit "health" insurance just as some gamblers will actually win in Vegas or Atlantic City etc. etc. but far more will come out on the losing end of the stick.

It's a crying shame that the American People's government has abandonment them to such an insidious industry; with it's built in spiraling adverse and dysfunctional dynamics working against the betterment of American Society.

[Enthusiast]

116. Yup. nt

[Jefferson23]

9. That title should be on a huge billboard on every highway in America.

[truth2power]

11. An excellent idea...

Out of all the possible choices for what to put on a billboard, "Top 5 insurers made $12 billion profit" would be my pick for something that just MIGHT wake up the snoozing Amurkin people.

[Jefferson23]

17. I think so, and tell them to go and fact check it too. We do have the

truth on our side, although you wouldn't know it from way the WH and the Senate have behaved.

Maybe, just maybe they will now.

[No Elephants]

41. The truth on our side for single payer, or even the House bill,

but on whose side is the Truth when it comes to the Senate bill?

[Jefferson23]

45. That is a piece of garbage, and if that is what Obama fights for

at Blair House, there will be hell to pay for Democrats imo. Labor is pissed off at the Senate too, they have a choice, even at this point in time.

[No Elephants]

60. Yes, they do. We ALL still have choices, and it's primary season.

[Captain Hilts]

14. The DNC should be running ads explaining how these are wasteful administrative costs. nt

[Jefferson23]

19. Of course, this should have been the case many months, I agree.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Too bad we have no real DNC....Kaine is worse than useless. nt

[No Elephants]

42. How would that help the Senate bill again (mandate, but no public option)?

[Captain Hilts]

48. It's explaining to the US people how they're being ripped off and deceived. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

127. Absolutely..They should be screaming about these profits.at a time like this...in addition to all

dropped coverage..

[LuckyLib]

123. Yes! Big and writ large!

[earcandle]

10. "anger is an energy" and I think they are all intentionally attempting to make us angry.

We are acting as the stupidest nation on this earth and we are leading the fray.
This has to be in the agenda of the armageddon folks. They want us to do what
third world country folks get triggered to do. Start a civil war and do the work
of murdering us by ourselves, and racking in all of those health care dollars for
the damage.

Anyone see read the Balcony by Jean Genet, where the policeman goes into the womb
tomb for 1000 years to become part of the nomenclature? Everything is hurling
toward absence, and everyone on the inside is monitoring the chaos.

There must be some real intelligence left somewhere that can help us get back to
our constitutional protections. To be held hostage by corporations is the ultimate
flip of the American way.

Crashing Into the Future

[Enthusiast]

117. "To be held hostage by corporations

is the ultimate flip of the American way."

It is against the very spirit of the founding of this nation. People that favor corporate rule are not the patriots they constantly tell us they are.

[fasttense]

12. I find it so bizarre that a business makes money by NOT giving customers what they pay for.

And it's perfectly legal.

Suppose you went into a shoe store and paid for pretty yellow pumps that you tried on. When you got home and opened the shoe box to wear them, low and behold the box was empty. You would be outraged. You would immediately call the store to get the shoes you paid for. Everyone would support you and agree you should have gotten your shoes. You could even file a lawsuit and be perfectly justified.

The same thing is happening with health care. Customers pay for something and when they open the box to use it, it is empty. And it's not happening to 1 or 2 people. It's happening to millions of people everyday. They get home, open the shoe box and it's empty.

It's not capitalism, it's not "free" market, it's theft clear and simple.

The only solution is to stop paying for an empty box and file suit, over and over again. I think it would be cheaper for a lot of people to simply file law suits against Insurance corporations than to pay the premiums for some of what passes as health insurance. They may not win but they would be no worse off.

The problem is people are afraid to go without health insurance. They think their box will have shoes when they open it. And the results of the theft is more severe than going without a new pair of shoes.

It's more like playing a game of Russian Roulette. Who's shoe box will be empty next time and who will die next from that empty box?

[subsuelo]

15. "It's not capitalism, it's not "free" market, it's theft "

well said

[liberation]

37. It is capitalism, it involves economic activity via the transfer and realization of capital.

Please stop projecting moral implications in concepts which are neutral, like capitalism. I am fascinated how some people feel like equating the minute a concept starts looking bad as "it" not being the same concept that it is and always has been.

[enlightenment]

43. How about shifting it an millimetre, then, and

say "that people who justify theft via the economic activity of transfer and realization of capital".

Or go finish reading Adam Smith - because he had a hell of a lot more to say about the free market than "it's all good".

People and systems are linked; the concept of capitalism was conceived by human minds - it did not spring full-fledged from the ether. It is not projection to point a finger at a dangerously flawed system.

[Flatulo]

108. At its essence, capitalism involves the exchange of value for value,

among other things.

Buying insurance is more akin to gambling. You're betting you will need it, and the company is betting you won't.

This may be simple-minded, but it works for me.

[winyanstaz]

74. Well done....a good way to put it...

[Captain Hilts]

13. Most people 'dropped' lost their coverage when they lost their jobs. Obscene profits. nt

[Ed76638]

16. I want to find me a teabagger or an obstructionist senator and punch them in the fucking mouth.

[No Elephants]

46. Good. Start with Baucus, Lieberman, Nelson, and then the rest of the Purple Snakes.

[grilled onions]

18. Their Financial Mantra--Elimanate those with PEC(pre-existing

conditions.) Makes little diff to them if it's one condition or twenty. Makes no diff if they work or can't work. Makes no diff if they are single or have a family. Makes no diff to age nor if you pay premiums on time. Talk about the mark of the beast I feel that all of us who are PEC have that emblazoned on our backside from every insurance company in the country!

[winyanstaz]

82. Yup....how many Americans did they murder to make that profit?

There are the "death panels"...

[Enthusiast]

118. Death panels do exist.

Right now they exist.

[Blue Owl]

21. Bu$h's Base

The crown prince of corruption and his precious gang of "have-mores" -- it's plain highway robbery disguised as "free market capitalism."


:mad:

[No Elephants]

50. You think this is Bush's fault?

[PHIMG]

22. Private Health Insurance Must Go! n/t

[Dappleganger]

23. So when are we going to take it to the streets, people???

Honestly, I don't think that Washington is going to listen until they hear us shouting with pitchforks and bonfires roaring outside their doors. Seriously!

[Luciferous]

32. +1 I think that's the only thing that will work at this point.

[Auggie]

47. Don't know, but I totally agree

[No Elephants]

49. So many tried to get us to do that. Demonstrations were held in D.C., NY, etc. Even a belly

dance in protest for single payer in, of all place, West Virginia. http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=260

Apparently, most of us prefer posting to demonstating and donating.

I wonder, though, would it even have made a difference if we had stepped up, literally and figuratively? As long as politicians believe that we will always vote for the incumbent and/or the candidate who can afford the most TV ads and the savviest campaign consultant, will anything voters/taxpayers/consumer do really make a difference?

One definition of insanity is continuing to repeat the same behavior while expecting a different result.

[jmowreader]

106. What the hell is the point of demonstrating?

I'm serious: What's the point, at least if you're a Democrat? We put MILLIONS of people in the street to demonstrate against Shrub's illegal war; you know the results of that. We have put millions upon millions of people in the streets in recent years for all sorts of causes and what happens? We're called every negative name in the book from "un-American" to "traitor" and they even question our sexuality. The Republican media turns 50,000 Democrats into "hundreds." The fucking Freepers show up with twenty sign-waving counterprotesters and a hundred portajons, and they get all the press.

OTOH, Dick Armey's FreedomWorks launches its rabble-rousing "TEA Party" campaign, fifty people show up, and it's a bold new grassroots political movement that's changing the world of governance as candidates from both sides craft their messages to appeal to Tea Party members.

[kath]

54. +10.

[fascisthunter]

24. and Yet the Teabaggers want to Preserve this current System???

plain stupid and crazy. I would like to believe some of them were unhappy with the current system, but they seem to freak out at the suggestipn that we do something about it collectively through our own government. Just confusing, frustrating and weird.

[No Elephants]

51. So, apparently, does the Democratic Senate.

[rasputin1952]

71. From what I've seen of them...most are on Medicare anyway...

they have nothing to gain/lose as far as health care goes...it's the old, "I've got mine, screw you", the very definition of Corporate Republicans.

[fascisthunter]

80. good point

[rasputin1952]

124. Edit...sorry, posted in wrong spot...

:blush:

[myrna minx]

25. Disgusting. n/t

[xchrom]

26. Recommend -- and now we're going to make

Them part of the government.
Remember they have their fingprints
on this effort.

[No Elephants]

65. Finding fingerprints at a crime scene should lead to convictions. Fat chance, but I can dream.

Instead, the usual suspects will probably remain in office, thanks in part to big campaign contributions and a low info and/or sheeple electorate.

[williesgirl]

27. This is obscene and needs to stop - single payer NOW. rec'd

[vegiegals]

28. Obama started the health care summit last year by playing nice-inviting

them in while kicking single payer reps under the table. Now we have this--rates going up and up. Reminds me of the credit card debacle!!

[liberation]

38. It was worse, single payer advocates were detained not just "kicked under the table"

I can't believe more people did not become enraged for that, in fact in almost any other industrialized country in the world... such an action (the jailing of people advocating for popular public interests) would have triggered civil unrest, strikes, and general rioting at a massive scale. But not here, no siree bob... in the land of "the free" and home of "brave" we sure showed the rest of the world: we went back to watching teevee, and it only took a couple of milquetoast speeches with not a single specific item in them to "calm us." Sad...

And this is not just Obama's folly, it is by large the fault of the blue dogs and the rest of milquetoast Dems which continue enabling these disgusting agendas.


Here is a concept for liberals in this country: maybe we should stop enabling moderate conservative charlatans while hoping they enable a liberal agenda.

It would be the same as if chickens kept electing a fox as hen house manager, while they wonder why egg production is down and why half of the chickens went missing. Except, that chickens would not be as brain dead as liberals in this country to actually do that.

[No Elephants]

53. Please see Reply ##s 46 and 49, posted before I got to your post.

:fistbump: :toast:

[izquierdista]

29. Maybe they can be convinced to drop everyone

Just think of how high their profits would be if they had no one to pay out on!

And while they are dreaming about that, maybe we can pass Medicare For All.

[Stumbler]

30. But, but, but...

I thought that lower taxes were the only reason why employers hire new employees, & maintain current employees.. Perhaps I'm wrong :sarcasm:

[digidigido]

31. HR 676

[No Elephants]

55. Oh, the bill filed in 2003, with almost 100 co-sponsors, that never made it even as far as the CBO?

Please excuse me for a second. I'll be right back to finish this post right after I quench my thirst at that lake in the mirage just ahead.

[cbdo2007]

33. Didn't most companies see profits increase from 2008 to 2009?

[No Elephants]

64. 346%? By DROPPING their consumers, a guaranty of deaths and/or bankruptcies?

Sorry, I must be missing your point.

[BeyondGeography]

34. But at least they're not socialists

:dunce:

[HughBeaumont]

79. SOSHULISM BAAAAAAAAD!

UhmericUh is a nation of idiots that we continue to fall for this bullshit without running old men in suits up flagpoles and bridges.

[NewJeffCT]

36. 56% jump in profits in the midst of the Great Recession

Amazing.

I bet Big Pharma's profits dwarf those of the health insurance industry as well.

[No Elephants]

67. What about 346%?

[democracy1st]

39. K & R

[totodeinhere]

44. This sort of thing just makes my blood boil.

And instead of holding hearings on why they increased their rates, we should be holding hearings on why we can't pass single payer HC which is supported by the vast majority of the American people who are the ones that these politicians are supposed to be working for.

[activa8tr]

58. My blood is boiling, too! I bet Alan Grayson will be ALL OVER this!

He's my only hero these days... maybe Franken, too.

[redqueen]

52. Bloodsucking leeches. (nt)

[Norrin Radd]

56. Wow. Just...wow. Disgusting.

[OhioChick]

61. Greedy fucks. n/t

[alp227]

63. The fatcats have got $12 billion that belongs to those families who can't put food on the table

and can't afford decent health insurance!

This report is really essential to the health care debate. K&R.

[defendandprotect]

66. Profits made at the expense of how much suffering and death -- ?

That's the thing about capitalism and measuring everything by the

yardstick of a dollar bill -- !!!

[OhioChick]

69. It's all blood money. n/t

[LeftHander]

70. Teabaggers want the right for insurance companies to profit by dropping sick people....nt

[Enthusiast]

119. Looks like it. nt

[NeoGreen]

72. The link to the report in the OP's provided link...

...doesn't seem to work.

I can't get to

http:// www.healthcareforamericanow.org/BigProfits

or even

http:// www.healthcareforamericanow.org

any suggestions?

[NeoGreen]

73. Nevermind...

It works from the link I provided in my request for help.

Hmmm...that is just odd.

[yankee2]

75. Chewed Up and Spit Out

Ahah! and Arghrrr, too! NOW we know where the $12Bn came from - it came from denying ordinary people, who have been dutifully paying their over-sized, inflated insurance premiums monthly for years and decades, the fruits of their contracted insurance! In fact, it came by not only denying them the benefits of their contracts, but in the process by also preventing them from getting ANY insurance whatsoever, and so ANY of the medical care they bargained, and paid for all those years, leading, in many cases, to their early deaths! Those denials are OBSCENE! They are CRIMINAL, in the extreme! They frequently if not always (conveniently) occur right at the point of extreme need, after all payments have been received, invested and profited on, when the injured party is LEAST able even to defend against them.

Isn't it odd that these "companies" (syndicates, cartels, and gangs would be better words for them), rarely discover the irregularities they use to excuse their decisions until it is THEIR turn to pay? And WHY are they even PERMITTED to cancel insurance after payments have been paid for years, on the basis of facts that the companies should have cited at the outset, i.e. on the basis of "errors" (because they are usually nothing more than excuses) made by the companies themselves?

I cannot think of anything lower or dirtier than the insurance companies, except perhaps the lawyers who defend them. And these are the same companies which get special treatment, including bailouts, favorable legislation and even CITIZENSHIP, from "our" government? We can be quite sure it is NOT our government! Does not ALL the evidence tell us that it is THEIRS? What, or I guess I should ask WHO runs "our" government? I think it is pretty clearly the corporations, among which the insurance companies are surely among the worst.

FTR, I think the insurance companies should be dissolved, to be replaced by socially responsible, government-run, non-profit (e.g. single-payer) insurance of EVERY kind. Rather than the amoral (or immoral), fear-mongering, money-grubbing commercial insurance we suffer with today, society would take a big step forward by adopting a public system which would "take care of its own," i.e. everyone, equally, regardless of their ability to pay. Imagine what a healthy society we might have then!

I might add that with the current "Third World-ization of America," which sees the Working (including Middle) Classes getting poorer and poorer, while the rich get astronomically richer, a socialized system will be ever more essential.

And maybe something like what happened during the French Revolution would be in order, too.

[dflprincess]

77. Just making up the money they lost paying all those lobbyists

and making those campaign "contributions".

[Rosa Luxemburg]

78. Bring in legislation to stop the insurance companies doing this

and hurry up

[fmlymninral]

81. if you look at the numbers

they only make $122 per person profit for the year. so if they made no money it would only decrease the average premium by 10 dollars per month. that is a drop in the bucket. We need to look at why health care( not health insurance )costs so much!!!!

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

83. You got your sensible analysis chocolate in my political peanut butter!

[kitkat65]

92. Could you please tell me where you get these figures?

Perhaps provide a link because I would love to see them. Thanks.

[fmlymninral]

104. here you go

http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2010/02/11/insurers-enjoy-record-breaking-profits-as-they-cut-27-million-people-from-their-rolls/

open the pdf of the report and go to page 6 divide profits 12 billion by number of enrolled members 101 million

[No Elephants]

111. You are assuming that a profit per person figure is meaningful in some way.

i don't know if that assumption is valid. And, whether or not the per person figure is meaningful,

I also don't know that health care costs are what keeps the figure from going to, say, $130 per person or higher.

And, of course, that figure, whether you break it down per person or not, is pure profit, on top of administrative costs in which some huge salaries and bonuses are subsumed, on top of whatever health care costs the insurer had to pay out on behalf of that person, plus all other costs related to attracting and carrying that person as a customer, legal costs, etc.

So, I don't see that $122 profit per customer as a low figure at all. Especially when the exemption from monopoly laws lets them muscle out upstarts and leaves a lot of consumers with few places to go.

And that's even before any mandate. After a mandate, the number of insured will increase dramatically and maybe the per person figure will increase as well (economies of scale, less money needed to attract customers, etc.)

Noneless, based on my own recent experience, hospital costs at Massachusetts General are indeed high.

All that said, the news in the OP is increase in profits this year over profits last year. And one company's increase was 346%--in a severe recession.

[fmlymninral]

122. i made that point

because this thread was about the profit not the overall expense related to private insurance. If you would like to reduce the overhead do that private insurance companies have one way would be to make regulations national not by state. How much does it cost to comply with the different regulation in each state that you do business in. In north Carolina we have about at least 10 different insurance companies competing for the individual and group policies. We also have a state plan that covers people who are denied due to preexisting conditions. so i believe that the competition problem is due to state regulation that discourages a company from entering that states market. National regulation would fix this problem and allow more competition.

[Turbineguy]

84. Yeah, like this tactic has been working so far.

The insurance companies just pay more congressmen more to counteract.

[Uncle Joe]

88. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[olegramps]

89. I think that President Obama should write them a stern letter.

[Quantess]

90. Business is good!

As they rub their sweaty palms together with glee...not giving a damn about the people who are dying.

[Deep13]

91. That's $4444 per dropped customer. nt

[cutlassmama]

93. How do they sleep at night? The greedy fucks.

[area51]

94. How do they sleep at night?

It's very simple. They're sociopaths; they don't care who they kill. Some people have no conscience, or else they believe the nazi lies that "someone" will step in and give people charity free health care.

[Major Hogwash]

95. We should outlaw health insurance companies like France did.

They're just a racket, a ponzi scheme of sorts anyway.

[Enthusiast]

120. They serve no good purpose. nt

[DailyGrind51]

96. The "free market" works! For insurance companies.

[JNelson6563]

97. this news inspires the following sentiment in me:

[baldguy]

98. Insurance is a perfect business model.

They first determine who will be allowed the privilege of their "service", then they determine what price to charge, and finally they decide IF they will pay out.

The technical term for it is "scam"

[Riverman]

99. Skimming the Cream of the Crop is Profitable! Not About Health

clearly! Single-Payer Now! Get these blood-suckers out of our lives!

[sazerac]

100. Overcharging

When did overcharging people become so acceptable? They have no competition and they charge whatever they want. Scumbags.

[nradisic]

101. Obscene and inhumane

Jesus!

[endless october]

102. medicare for all. nt

[HughMoran]

103. This is the kind of ammunition that should drive the Dems to drive this legislation home

Damnit, they're killing us - don't make us resort to taking the law into our own hands with these insurance criminals. Passing a good law would actually save lives. The lives of the insurance murderers who are killing Americans for profit.

[lonestarnot]

107. So if they don't pass health care reform when do we take it out on the insurance companies?

[lib_n_proud7650]

109. True scum they are

[grantcart]

110. It would make Tony Soprano proud.

[alfredo]

112. I wonder how much money they will make if we drop them?

[grahamhgreen]

113. No Senate plan without a public option and drug price negotiation.

[TexasObserver]

114. Insurers only want to insure people who pay more than they require.

Anyone who thinks any insurance company won't take their insurance premium money for 40 years, but then dump them the first time they start having serious need for the health coverage doesn't understand these heartless bastards. They don't care. They don't have to.

What are you gonna do about it? Sue them? Good luck. It's hard to make a case for bad faith against them, and time is on their side. They know that by breaching they're leaving you hurting and likely unable to sustain a battle to enforce your rights.

There is no more impotent person in America than the health insurance customer who can't get the coverage his or her policy is supposed to cover. Good luck getting anyone to help you.

[rasputin1952]

125. One of the glaring anolmalies of the RW "argument" about...

"bureaucrats" making decisions about one's care, is that people who have a direct stake in their companies profit margins are making the same decisions, and a far lot harsher than any "bureaucrat" could ever do.

The equation is quite simple..."no profit motive, better decisions/profit motive, bad decisions"...why the average American can't figure that out amazes me to no end. This isn't rocket science, it's baseline economics. It is pretty rate that individuals on Medicare are denied treatment, yet it is a huge "government program"; same with the VA, (where even "experimental" treatments are often used.The argument is as vacuous as that of "tort reform will bring down insurance costs", another red herring that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem...(the problem is bad doctors in practices that they should not be in, which raise the rates for even the best physicians).

Every minute of every day, we teeter on the brink of being in an accident or diagnosed with a grave disease...many go untreated and die; while the GOP lies their way into an even more unbearable situation.

"Death Panel"...the R's in Congress have had that seating arrangement for a long time.

[BrklynLiberal]

126. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put these guys out of business....