Do people who are against Obama’s health care reform think insurance companies care about them?
Health Insurance Profits Soar as Industry Mergers Create Near-Monopoly
by Mike Hall, May 27, 2009
Profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007, while consumers paid more for less coverage. One of the major reasons, according to a new study, is the growing lack of competition in the private health insurance industry that has led to near monopoly conditions in many markets.
The report says such conditions warrant a Justice Department investigation and, says Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), provide compelling evidence of the need for a public health insurance plan option as part of the health care reform initiative President Obama and Congress are developing.
Schumer says the report from Health Care for America Now! (HCAN)
is the starkest evidence yet that the private health care insurance market is in bad need of some healthy competition. A public health insurance option is critical to ensure the greatest amount of choice possible for consumers.
According to the recently released HCAN report, “Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market“:
In the past 13 years, more than 400 corporate mergers have involved health insurers, and a small number of companies now dominate local markets but haven’t delivered on promises of increased efficiency. According to the American Medical Association, 94 percent of insurance markets in the United States are now highly concentrated, and insurers are thriving in the anti-competitive marketplace, raking in enormous profits and paying out huge CEO salaries.
These mergers and consolidations have created a marketplace where a small number of larger companies use their power to raise premiums—an average of 87 percent over the past six years—restrict and reduce benefit packages and control and cut provider payments.
In a letter to the Department of Justice’s Anti-Trust Division, Richard Kirsch, HCAN national campaign manager, and David Balto, former policy director of the Federal Trade Commission and now senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, write:
Simply put, the private insurance companies have secured monopolies or tight oligopolies and exercised that power to put profits ahead of patients….There were no actions taken against anticompetitive conduct by health insurers in the last administration, in spite of the fact that cases by state attorneys general have secured massive fines against these insurers. A lack of antitrust enforcement has enabled insurers to acquire dominant positions in almost every metropolitan market.
They ask for an investigation of the already consummated mergers that “harm competition or create an anticompetitive market structure.” They also urge the Justice Department to conduct investigations of “anticompetitive conduct by dominant insurance companies and challenge that conduct where appropriate.”
Many dominant insurers limit the ability of providers to choose rival insurers or inform patients about more efficient and comprehensive coverage. The DOJ should investigate tools used to stifle competition such as physician gag clauses, most favored nations provisions, all-products clauses, and silent networks, which prevent providers and consumers from having the full range of competitive alternatives.
Schumer last week co-sponsored a Senate resolution urging the creation of a public health plan option and says a public health plan “is critical to ensure the greatest amount of choice possible for consumers.”
We believe that it is fully possible to create a public health insurance plan that delivers all the benefits of increased competition without relying on unfair, built-in advantages. If a level playing field exists, then private insurers will have to compete based on quality of care and pricing, instead of just competing for the healthiest consumers
The way to fix the monopolies is increase competition not create a government monopoly.
July 17th, 2010 at 6:20 am
What makes you think the government cares about you.News Flash!They don’t.
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July 17th, 2010 at 6:58 am
And yet the Government can be trusted more than insurance companies? lol, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
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July 17th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Actually, insurance companies are all about profits.
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July 17th, 2010 at 7:27 am
I don’t care if insurance companies care about me or not. As long as this country doesn’t turn into a socialism, I’m happy for now.
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July 17th, 2010 at 8:00 am
The way to fix the monopolies is increase competition not create a government monopoly.
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July 17th, 2010 at 8:25 am
No, But I also know the government doesn’t care about me either. I can at least withhold payment or change providers if I don’t like my insurance company.
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July 17th, 2010 at 9:03 am
A lot of the money is in the republicans pockets, why do you think they coined the phrases death squads, death panels and popping grand ma?
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July 17th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Don’t forget about Pharmaceutical companies. They shove drugs down our throats when we don’t even need them.
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July 17th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Not only do insurance companies not care about you, neither do doctors, nurses, big pharmaceuticals, or the United States Government. Welcome to the wonderful world of reality. Thanks for joining us!
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July 17th, 2010 at 9:55 am
At least with private insurance, if you don’t like the company, you can switch to another. If you feel they were not dealing fairly with you, you can sue them. You’re not going to be suing the government and the only way to get another insurance plan is to move to another country. The government will be every bit as cold as an insurance company. Then on the other hand, if the government goes broke, they just charge you more taxes.
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July 17th, 2010 at 10:43 am
They haven’t needed to rely on their insurance coverage in a catastrophe,and neither has anyone they love.
And they don’t think that could happen to them.
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July 17th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Do people that are FOR Obama care think that the government cares about them?
Newsflash – they do not!
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July 17th, 2010 at 11:56 am
The thing is insurance companies can be held accountable to the government/courts if the abuse the system. The government is the law and with it already monopolizing its self, they can not be trusted with a monopoly of the health care field. The government will have nothing stopping it.
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July 17th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
" If a level playing field exists, then private insurers will have to compete based on quality of care and pricing, instead of just competing for the healthiest consumers."
When you take preexisting condition out of the equation, health or lack thereof is not an issue any longer. No matter what the plan private or public, they are going to have to compete to please the consumer. They will have to throw in what the consumer wants at better price. Also, offer incentives to the consumer such as freebies and perhaps offer more alternative forms of medical care that cost less and generally are safer and more effective.
Nonprofit health care is where it is headed. Profit margins should not exist in the health care industry. They need to boost efficiency and do what they are intended to do, treat patients in a simple, efficient and safe manner.
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