I shouldn't have been surprised to see the article by Noam N. Levey concerning a report of the gargantuan profits made in 2009 by health insurance companies. After all, the battle between the voters and the insurers, refereed by congress, has been decided in favor of the industry. Who do we have to thank for this outcome? Our own elected, but industry-subsidized, legislators.
If the health care reform debate accomplished anything, it made the health care insurance leviathan more powerful than ever. Given a chance to enact laws that would level the playing field in favor of working people, our (mostly Republican) legislators chose, instead, to invite these greed-driven industry captains to the bargaining table. Then, without equalizing the debate with any representatives of we, the people, proceeded to hand them everything they asked for, plus the kitchen sink. By publicly protecting their interests, rather than ours, they showed exactly who they are really representing, and it ain't us, babe.
The "government takeover" rhetoric that helped kill the public option as well as the very public support of the industry's exemption from anti-trust laws surely emboldened these firms to take profit to new levels. The report, based upon the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, shows an industry that increased profits by 56% while the country was mired in a deep recession. How do they explain this aberration? They blame their stockholders, of course.
Industry analyst Sheryl Skolnick is quoted as saying, "It's a terrible thing to run your business for Wall Street". According to this logic, the industry is required to keep raising prices in order to please stockholders. Was it stockholders, then, that caused California's Anthem Blue Cross to raise premiums by 39% on many of its customers? How about the decision by three of the five largest insurers to allocate less of the premiums collected to paying patients' claims, and more to salaries and profits? Somehow, I can't believe that these CEOs are taking their orders from investors, particularly when the result is more profit in their own pockets.
The huge sums insurance companies poured into congress last year are really paying off. As long as this country is run more by corporate interests than the interests of the electorate, no real reform will ever take place.
If the health care reform debate accomplished anything, it made the health care insurance leviathan more powerful than ever. Given a chance to enact laws that would level the playing field in favor of working people, our (mostly Republican) legislators chose, instead, to invite these greed-driven industry captains to the bargaining table. Then, without equalizing the debate with any representatives of we, the people, proceeded to hand them everything they asked for, plus the kitchen sink. By publicly protecting their interests, rather than ours, they showed exactly who they are really representing, and it ain't us, babe.
The "government takeover" rhetoric that helped kill the public option as well as the very public support of the industry's exemption from anti-trust laws surely emboldened these firms to take profit to new levels. The report, based upon the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, shows an industry that increased profits by 56% while the country was mired in a deep recession. How do they explain this aberration? They blame their stockholders, of course.
Industry analyst Sheryl Skolnick is quoted as saying, "It's a terrible thing to run your business for Wall Street". According to this logic, the industry is required to keep raising prices in order to please stockholders. Was it stockholders, then, that caused California's Anthem Blue Cross to raise premiums by 39% on many of its customers? How about the decision by three of the five largest insurers to allocate less of the premiums collected to paying patients' claims, and more to salaries and profits? Somehow, I can't believe that these CEOs are taking their orders from investors, particularly when the result is more profit in their own pockets.
The huge sums insurance companies poured into congress last year are really paying off. As long as this country is run more by corporate interests than the interests of the electorate, no real reform will ever take place.
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