US healthcare: Profits before patients

[Capt Bringdown]

What is the point of having the world's best medical facilities if citizens don't have the money to access healthcare?

Democratic politicians proudly point to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the bill that was signed by President Obama in March 2010, as real progress, but Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), an organisation of doctors who support healthcare for all, say the bill is nothing more than a false promise of reform.

Instead of eliminating the real problem, the new legislation will enrich and further entrench the profit-driven, private health insurance industry, and leave 23 million people still uninsured in 2019, according to PNHP.

If Republicans have their way, the 45 million seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicare will see their out-of-pocket costs double - or do without treatment altogether.

The US is the only major country in the industrialised world that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all of its citizens. It's unconscionable that 45,000 people in the US die every year because they can't afford care.

Here's a fact from the PNHP that never made its way through the noise machine during the so-called healthcare debate - which was shaped by the insurance industry from the beginning. It should be repeated over and over again. the bureaucracy and paperwork of the profit-making health insurance industry consume one-third of every healthcare dollar.

Streamlining payment through a single-payer system would save more than $400 billion per year - which is enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...145164217.html

[boutons_deux]

"What is the point of having the world's best medical facilities if citizens don't have the money to access healthcare"

That more and more people can't afford UCA healthcare is of no concern to the sick-care racket, whose overriding concern is profit, not delivering care.

Sick-care is so expensive that even employees' group insurance plans are "tax-expenditure" supported by employees not paying taxes on the benefit, and employers deducting health plan costs as expenses.

oops, is this what journalism looks like when not corrupted by corporate money?

[Wild Cobra]

If a health care provider goes bankrupt, who does that help?

They have to make a profit.

[ElNono]

They have to make a profit.

That's obviously a false premise. You can choose to be profit-neutral and not go bankrupt.

[ElNono]

There's other categories too, like NPO, which use any profits as a re-investment on themselves and are barred from distributing said profits to owners or shareholders.

[ElNono]

You should know this, since you seem to champion charity at every opportunity...

[boutons_deux]

eg:

https://www.kaiserpermanente.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Permanente

[Wild Cobra]

That's obviously a false premise. You can choose to be profit-neutral and not go bankrupt.

That's fine, but they still have to maintain a revenue to cover costs. That sad truth is they have to watch how generous they are with services at times.

[ElNono]

That's fine, but they still have to maintain a revenue to cover costs. That sad truth is they have to watch how generous they are with services at times.

Right. Your premise that you either make a profit or go bankrupt is still fallacious.

[DarrinS]

Evil gawt damned VRWC profit-lovin bas s!

[ElNono]

There's nothing wrong with making a profit, IMO. Saying it's the only option is a lie.

[boutons_deux]

"Evil gawt damned VRWC profit-lovin bas s"

excellent description, one of the truest posts you ever made.

[DarrinS]

"Evil gawt damned VRWC profit-lovin bas s"

excellent description, one of the truest posts you ever made.

[greyforest]

If a health care provider goes bankrupt, who does that help?

They have to make a profit.

It's almost as if not everything works toward the benefit of society in a loosely regulated free market.

[DMX7]

You can always count on Corporate America's useful idiots to make a fool of themselves for the cause.

[Wild Cobra]

Right. Your premise that you either make a profit or go bankrupt is still fallacious.

Let's just agree you cannot keep operating in the red.

[ElNono]

Let's just agree you cannot keep operating in the red.

Let's just agree that they can operate without necessarily turning in a profit.

[Wild Cobra]

Let's just agree that they can operate without necessarily turning in a profit.

I will agree I misstated that originally.

Happy?

Wasn't rewording it enough, or do I have to beg your forgiveness?

[ElNono]

I will agree I misstated that originally.

[coyotes_geek]

Given how profit margins for HC providers run in the low single digits, I have a hard time believing the problem with the US HC industry is that it's operating at a profit.

If you really want to do something about HC costs there are far bigger causes that should be addressed before we worry about the 3% profit margins insurance companies are making. Things like the American fast food + couch potato lifestyle for example.

[ElNono]

The insurance companies might be making single digit profits, but are service providers making single digit profits? Pharmaceuticals?

[boutons_deux]

Health Insurer Profits Jumped 250% in Last Decade

Profits for the 10 largest U.S. insurance companies jumped 250% between 2000 and 2009 while millions of Americans have lost coverage, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report found that the five biggest insurance companies -- WellPoint (WLP), Cigna (CI), UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET) and Humana (HUM) -- saw their profits increase 56% in 2009, a year in which 2.7 million people lost their private coverage.What's more, the report found that the companies combined earned a total of $12.2 billion last year.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/...n-last-decade/

[boutons_deux]

UnitedHealth recently reported that it’s first quarter profits increased by 21%.

We regulate insurance companies at the low-end of their capitol levels. We do not regulate what is too much capital or surplus. A company can decide that surplus is not profit. So when a company tells you it’s making 2.2% profit, what it’s telling you is that the discretionary decision that’s been made about how to report that number — it is not a reflection of capitol received or the financial strength of that individual company, necessarily.

insurers are only as rich as their comparison. As Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) explained during the hearing, “profit [earnings as a percent of revenue] is one measure, but return on equity is another measure. You can compare them not only to device makers, and other parts, but if you compare them to the manufacturing sector, insurance is doing pretty good I think. So it’s all the point at which you’re comparing.”

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2010...fits-reserves/

=========

I'll cry as hard and as long for the health insurers as I will for the financial sector.

Right-wingers here shilling for the poor, beat-up health insurers.

[boutons_deux]

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/januar...ing_insure.php

[coyotes_geek]

The insurance companies might be making single digit profits, but are service providers making single digit profits? Pharmaceuticals?

Service providers are also low single digits profits.

Margins for pharmas get into the teens. Whether a 15% profit margin is "excessive" or not will vary from person to person I suppose. Allowing Americans to start buying prescription meds from other countries would certainly push those margins down somewhat. I 100% think this is something that needs to happen. Still, I don't think squeezing pharma margins down into the single digits where the rest of the healthcare sector is operating is going to have the dramatic effect on overall prices that people are looking for.