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WOW! The health insurance corporate anthem!

Most Health Insurance companies ARE non-profit. I have a hunch though, that you're not interested in facts.

Here are a few facts some might want to consider:

Health Insurance premiums are regulated by the States. Insurers are not free to charge whatever they want. The U.S. Congress and Senate has nothing to do with authorizing rates.

Competition is and always has been the antidote to excess profits at for-profit companies. If an insurance company overcharges, they quickly find their subscribers going elsewhere.

In some states, rates are very high because the state legislatures have mandated that a huge list of ailments and conditions be covered under every policy, rather than allow the purchasers the option of buying those coverages they want and can afford. In some states, even cosmetic surgery is mandated. That's like mandating oil changes and brake linings be covered on auto insurance policies. The more you cover, the more expensive it gets.

BTW, the posted video violates several trademarks. Whoever produced it has some serious liability exposure.

I just checked, Aetna return on investment was 4.3%, not exactly a robber barron. You should look at what bills were paid on your behalf before you blame the insurance companies for being the problem. I have no idea why anyone thinks the federal government could run the system better, especially after what they have done with medicare.

vote2008 In a previous post you complained that McCain was ruining medicare because he did not vote on a bill that would rescind a 10% reduction for payments to doctors. Is this what we can expect from a government health system, if the AMA complains enough and buys enough votes in congress, the taxpayers will just fork over more money? Medicare is already paying an average of $12,000 per year per member, and they don't even pay 100% of the bills. With all the taxes and payments from users, it doesn't seem to be that well run, does it? I would rather not having to write to my congressman or give him a donation to get health care.

Talk about taxpayers forking over money - look at those cost plus 2%, no-bid contracts awarded to corporations by Bush and his cronies!

LadyEarth,

We're discussing health care insurance in this thread. What in the world are you talking about? You provide no links and cite no references.

Since you've taken the time to post though, let's talk about that 2% profit margin. What do you suppose the average profit margin for business is, nationally?

And since all businesses are also investments for one or more persons, what return on their investment would you say is reasonable? How low would it have to be, before people start investing their money overseas? Do you invest your own money to receive the highest rate of return, or do reject that as excessive, and seek out investments that pay substantially less that 2%?

"the taxpayers will just fork over more money?" I was commenting on this statement. We taxpayers are making outrageous payments to corporations like Haliburton and Blackwater on their no-bid, cost plus 2% contracts.

"The history of the Bush Administration’s handling of federal contracts is one of persistent and
costly mismanagement. Waste, fraud, and abuse have plagued the contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, as well as a number of homeland security contracts."

Halliburton is only one example. You should read the reports on Blackwater USA and its charges. Talk about sweetheart deals! Not to mention that it is your money and my money that is paying the bill.

"Under Halliburton’s two largest Iraq contracts, Pentagon auditors found $1 billion in “questioned” costs and over $400 million in “unsupported” costs. Former Halliburton
employees testified that the company charged $45 for cases of soda, billed $100 to clean 15-pound bags of laundry, and insisted on housing its staff as the five-star Kempinski hotel in Kuwait. Halliburton truck drivers testified that the company “torched” brand new $85,000 trucks rather than perform relatively minor repairs and regular maintenance. Halliburton procurement officials described the company’s informal motto in Iraq as “Don’t worry about price. It’s cost-plus.”5 A Halliburton manager was indicted for “major fraud against the United States” for allegedly billing more than $5.5 billion for work that should have cost only $685,000 in exchange for a $1 million kickback from a Kuwaiti subcontractor.

Say Halliburton subcontracts to "A," who, in turn, subcontracts to "B," and "B" subcontracts to "C." "C" bills "B" for its costs, overhead and profit. "B" takes "C"s
bill, adds into it "B"s costs, overhead and profit, and submits its total bill to "A." "A" then adds in its costs, overhead and profit and submits the entire bill to Halliburton, who then adds its costs, overhead and profit and then gets 2% additional for the entire bill. SWEETHEART DEALS! There is no oversight. There is no reason to try to keep costs down, because the more it costs, the greater the payment to Halliburton. Google no bid, cost plus 2% contract and prepare to have your eyes opened.

Sound to me like the Pentagon auditors are on the job. Gee, I wonder which branch of the government they report to?

No-bid contracts are nothing new. I suggest you research the history of LOGCAP. (Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program) Halliburton is one of only two companies in the world capable of doing some things, and the other is a French company. LOGCAP awards an umbrella contract, under which supplemental contracts are awarded Halliburton won one of these from the Clinton Administration too. I'm not excusing abuse by any means, I'm just pointing out that these contracts are not unusual, and do not exist because of the current White House occupants.

I don't believe Obama or McCain is advocating a single payer system for America that would be a copy of the Medicare system and eliminate Insurance companies. As much as there have been complaints about "utilization review" by insurance companies under our current private insurance system, we are still spending 16% of our GNP or $2.2 trillion dollars annually for health care which is far more than any other industrialized nation spends. On average they spend 10% of their GNP and cover everybody. So our health care is about 40% too high. The answer is not to open the system to everyone and not control the use of it, which is a service the insurance industry performs. Such a system would run amok, with fraud being predominant (Medicare averages 20% fraud) and cost going out of control. The Blue Cross system was set up to provide health insurance for the nation and some private private insurance firms have have supplemented that activity. United Health Care was stated by a doctor. You may complain about executive salaries but just like all of corporate America, CEOs who bring high dividends to the stock holders get a financial reward. The health care industry is no exception. If you really want the government running the system for the entire nation just spend a few minutes talking to Canadians about the problem they have getting services. No thank you, if we have universal health care, I would much rather have the insurance industry running the system and being a watchdog over abuse of services and overcharging by providers, than the government who will do the job with all the inefficiency of the people who ran Walter Reed Hospital into the ground.