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The greedy insurance industry middle-man? And our government wasting tons of our money waging useless wars halfway across the world, instead of giving us something in return for the high taxes?
Greedy insurance industry???? How about 3.3% profit?
Private health insurance companies have come under attack lately for making profits, even "record profits," allegedly because of mergers, lack of competition, and monopoly power.
President Obama: There have been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits, right now," Obama said during a prime-time news conference. At a time when everybody's getting hammered, they're making record profits, and premiums are going up. What's the constraint on that? ... Well, part of the way is to make sure that there's some competition out there.
As the table above of Profit Margins by Industry shows (click to enlarge, data here for the most recent quarter), the industry "Health Care Plans" ranks #86 by profit margin (profits/revenue) at 3.3%. Measured by profit margin, there are 85 industries more profitable than Health Care Plans (included Cigna (CI), Aetna (AET), WellPoint (WLP), HealthSpring (HS), etc.).
Health insurance cost are going up because the technology and procedures are getting better and better, and therefore become more expensive.
True to a degree......R&D is a major cost factor.
Innovation however is 'managed' by big pharma.
For example.....
Diabetic testing supplies.
The meters are given away free by many manufacturers. These - like calculators - are mass produced and the technology has made leaps in just the last five years (no coding, the method of measurement, etc).
Now, the test strips are another matter. While the same leaps in technology are apparent for test strips, the cost has remained fairly (and I use that term loosely) constant. The cost of them is so prohibitive that many cannot afford them. I wonder why those prices haven't dropped drastically? I know I cannot afford a 30 day supply for $50~$100 for them.
The reason for the price 'fix' on them is the payola. Insurance and government pays a big part of the cost.
Think about it. A strip of plastic 2 inches long, with two conducting traces that measure resistance. Constructed to be non reusable. Are they worth $1 + each? Yeah if you must monitor blood sugar 3~4 times a day. But the actual cost is micro miniscule for the strip. Yes the manufacturing technology, the tooling, the TV commercials and advertising is expensive, but the cost/profit ratio per strip must be astronomical!
I cannot believe the technology cannot be developed so the strips cannot be used more than once.
There are a lot of factors that make this true. The big one is genetics. None of the counties that are typically compared to the US have the same demographics.
The second is that the US has far more advanced equipment than most other countries. We spend much more on technology.
And by the way, our government already controls a huge portion of your health care costs. Between Medicare, Medicaid and the hundreds of government mandates that are imposed on insurance companies, it's pretty much controlled by govt.
And the new Obamacare mandates are already costing American workers millions.
Unless you are implying that African Americans and Hispanics are genetically inferior, I don't see what difference the bold makes.
The facts are that the genetics of certain people produce longer lives and the genetics of others produce shorter lives.
Blacks in the US have a shorter life expectancy. The reason is not necessarily genetics. It may be due to less access to health care among people of poverty, who are dispropotionately black.
And by the way, our government already controls a huge portion of your health care costs. Between Medicare, Medicaid and the hundreds of government mandates that are imposed on insurance companies, it's pretty much controlled by govt.
And the new Obamacare mandates are already costing American workers millions.
so i dont get it, this health care bill Obama passed was essentially the same bill the republicans gave to Clinton back in 93', so now you guys are against it?
so i dont get it, this health care bill Obama passed was essentially the same bill the republicans gave to Clinton back in 93', so now you guys are against it?
I don't know who "you guys" are. I'm not a Republican. I don't care who proposes the bill, I'm opposed to it.
I don't form opinions about bills based on who proposes the bill.
Ok, someone tell me in clear informed english, what exactly is wrong with the health care bill. It will cost us next to nothing and give alot of people access to affordable insurance. I guess you guys are the same people who won't admit that tax cuts costs us more money than they're worth. They cut the public option for you guys, I don't see how making pooled insurance available to the greater public is a bad thing.
I guess you would rather people who can't afford insurance fail to get the health care they need? How does that help us? By the way I'm in a bracket that would be paying higher taxes, I'm willing to pay more than my share how about you?
Please don't bring up Canada, that doesn't work near as badly as neocons would portray it, god forbid Mr. Howell doesn't get preference over the common man at the doctors office.
Btw you do realize that the automotive bailouts will pay for themselves as well as will the bank bailouts that were initiated by W.
This coming from a former Republican, please find some balanced news source to check the facts for yourself, and god forbid don't use fox news as your source. They splice and tape together segments all of the time for their own game and people are eating it up, use CNN. Ohh they're liberal you say, bull.....Do you realize the liberals talk all the time about how the corporate media only portrays the views of the right, the same way hannity talks about the corporate media only portraying the views of the left. Whose right? Probably neither. The balanced view of CNN and the networks is pissing off both sides who don't want to hear common sense news. The parties aren't teams guys, there are real issues here that need to be resolved and there are people out there dying because they can't get access to insurance, how is that a party issue?
You lost me at "people are out there dying because they can't get access to insurance". Seriously?
If you're willing to pay more than your share, go for it. It's called "choice". Forcing me to do the same based on what you feel is right is called theft.
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