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FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat

apdst

apdst

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I didn't know this. Health insurance companies only make a 6% +/- profit? That's a going out of business profit margin. I wouldn't own a business that only made a 6% profit margin. Hell, if I had a business that didn't make 10%+, I would close it down and walk off and that's still below the bottom end of the national average. I mean, a business that actually meant to make money and not just a tax shelter. The tax shelters I own make negative profits, but that's what they're supposed to do.

These are the evil, greedy, money grubbin' insurance companies that the Libbos tell us about? Really? No wonder insurance companies turn people away for pre-existing conditions. With a 6% profit margin, there's no way an insurance company could staty afloat if they insured every swinging dick that signed up. Good God!!!

This just goes to how how dishonest Libbos and the MSM really are. How dare they not reveal this information before now?

WASHINGTON – Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.

In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."

Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones

FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat - Yahoo! News
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I would imagine those fat salaries and perks eat up much of the margin.

They ain't goin out of business. Not by a long shot.
 
If I had a business that made 6 percent on a 100k I would question it. If I had a business that made 6 percent on a billion I would love it.
 
winston53660 said:
If I had a business that made 6 percent on a 100k I would question it. If I had a business that made 6 percent on a billion I would love it.
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Except that your expenses are just a relative to the billion dollars as they are the 100k. Didn't think about that part, huh?
 
winston53660 said:
If I had a business that made 6 percent on a 100k I would question it. If I had a business that made 6 percent on a billion I would love it.
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What they make in 'profits' disguises the depth of the problem. The industry has a figure they call 'medical loss ratio'. It refers to the amount of each premium dollar spent on health care. It has dropped from middle 90s, to high 70s, low 80s.



They are making lots of money. Churning it around in fat salaries, and some profits to shareholders. They are spending less and less on actual health care.
 
Why is it that your garden variety Libbos has zero business sense? I mean, ya'll are all more educated than the rest of us and **** like that, but when it comes to business you folks are clueless. None of you seem to understand the concept of operating capital. Why is that?
 
apdst said:
Why is it that your garden variety Libbos has zero business sense? I mean, ya'll are all more educated than the rest of us and **** like that, but when it comes to business you folks are clueless. None of you seem to understand the concept of operating capital. Why is that?
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Anybody that puts "libbos" into roughly 95% of their posts I seriously have to question their common sense.

Would you rather make 6% on a billion or a 100k?
 
jackalope said:
What they make in 'profits' disguises the depth of the problem. The industry has a figure they call 'medical loss ratio'. It refers to the amount of each premium dollar spent on health care. It has dropped from middle 90s, to high 70s, low 80s.



They are making lots of money. Churning it around in fat salaries, and some profits to shareholders. They are spending less and less on actual health care.
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What insurance companies do with the money is invest in various vehicles via shell companies that get a return on the capital.
 
winston53660 said:
Anybody that puts "libbos" into roughly 95% of their posts I seriously have to question their common sense.

Would you rather make 6% on a billion or a 100k?
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So who's going to determine what a fair profit is?
 
winston53660 said:
Anybody that puts "libbos" into roughly 95% of their posts I seriously have to question their common sense.

Would you rather make 6% on a billion or a 100k?
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On a billion, obviously. The part that you obviously don't understand, is that either way, you still only have a 6% profit to operate off of for the following year. Which means, that you spent 940 million bucks this past year, and for next year, you only have 60 million bucks to cover the years expenses, in case there are any shortfalls. And, that means, that if you go through that 60 million in the first 4-6 months, well, you're ****ed for the rest of the year. Yeah, they call that operating capital. Surely, the math just jumps out at you. Now, that is common sense...:rofl
 
So what about the profits they make off all of their investments that they have made from their policies of turning away sick people and only being willing to cover the healthy? And even then when a healthy person gets sick in many cases insurers look for ways to deny them coverage and cut off their claims.

Are those profits included in the OP's figures?
 
goldendog said:
So what about the profits they make off all of their investments that they have made for their policies of turning away sick people and only being willing to cover the healthy? And even then when a healthy person gets sick in many cases insurers look for way to deny them coverage cut off their claims.

Are those profits included in the OP's figures?
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You're going to have to provide some docs to give a more complete picture of what you're talking about. I know I'm wasting my time asking, but I'm obligated to ask, just the same.
 
winston53660 said:
What insurance companies do with the money is invest in various vehicles via shell companies that get a return on the capital.
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This is correct. An insurance company does not take a payment stream of premiums and just put them into an interest baring account where contractual liabilities are to be drawn from.

A rather large segment of their income/liabilities stream is swapped with another insurance companies stream as a means of "easing" their risk pool. Usually the counter party is in another geographic area (hence the interstate insurance regulations) where the likelihood of liabilities stemming from a particular incident (say a flood) are not able to effect both streams.

Question to apdst: The larger the risk pool the ____ the individual liability.
 
apdst said:
You're going to have to provide some docs to give a more complete picture of what you're talking about. I know I'm wasting my time asking, but I'm obligated to ask, just the same.
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So all I have to do is prove that Insurance companies are good at hiding excess profit?
 
goldendog said:
So all I have to do is prove that Insurance companies are good at hiding excess profit?
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An insurance companies profit is only as good as their ability to hedge against risk.
 
goldendog said:
So what about the profits they make off all of their investments that they have made from their policies of turning away sick people and only being willing to cover the healthy?
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Blame people who don't want to get pooled with the sick. If you make an agreement about pooling your risks, do you want to pool risks with someone who has had melanoma 3 times?

And even then when a healthy person gets sick in many cases insurers look for ways to deny them coverage and cut off their claims.
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Well if they're denied unreasonably then it's fraud and it should be prosecuted.
 
They make hidden money.
 
apdst said:
I didn't know this. Health insurance companies only make a 6% +/- profit? That's a going out of business profit margin. I wouldn't own a business that only made a 6% profit margin. Hell, if I had a business that didn't make 10%+, I would close it down and walk off and that's still below the bottom end of the national average. I mean, a business that actually meant to make money and not just a tax shelter. The tax shelters I own make negative profits, but that's what they're supposed to do.

These are the evil, greedy, money grubbin' insurance companies that the Libbos tell us about? Really? No wonder insurance companies turn people away for pre-existing conditions. With a 6% profit margin, there's no way an insurance company could staty afloat if they insured every swinging dick that signed up. Good God!!!

This just goes to how how dishonest Libbos and the MSM really are. How dare they not reveal this information before now?
Click to expand...

Keep in mind what they're getting 6% of. 6% of 50,000 isn't that much; however, 6% of the billions made by insurance companies annually is actually pretty damn good.

Don't by the hype. 6% is more than they need.

Do not by the hype.

Examples:

UnitedHealth earned $859 million. But that's not a record for quarterly net income. During the same period in 2007, for example, its net income was $1.23 billion.

Full article: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...alth-insurance-company-turned-profit-not-rec/

Have a look at the political message at: http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/09/protect-profits-of-insurance-companies.html
 
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Vader said:
Keep in mind what they're getting 6% of. 6% of 50,000 isn't that much; however, 6% of the billions made by insurance companies annually is actually pretty damn good.
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Do you know what a profit margin means?
 
apdst said:
On a billion, obviously. The part that you obviously don't understand, is that either way, you still only have a 6% profit to operate off of for the following year. Which means, that you spent 940 million bucks this past year, and for next year, you only have 60 million bucks to cover the years expenses, in case there are any shortfalls. And, that means, that if you go through that 60 million in the first 4-6 months, well, you're ****ed for the rest of the year. Yeah, they call that operating capital. Surely, the math just jumps out at you. Now, that is common sense...:rofl
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Considering labor costs are proportionate what would you rather make? 6% on a 100k or 6% on 1 billion.
 
Kali said:
They make hidden money.
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And, that's not illegal. What is illegal, is for the government to go on a witch hunt because of it. I know it may come as a shock to most on the Left, but this is America and there's nothing wrong with making money.
 
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