How much do insurance companies spend on actual patient care?

[Chris]

The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a report this year stating that the country's seven largest commercial health insurers use only 83.1 percent of premiums received to pay for medical costs for large group policies. That compares with the 95 percent that went for health care services in 1993 and the 97.9 percent that Medicare spends on patient care, the report said.

Those large companies include Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, WellPoint, owner of Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Coventry, Humana and Health Net. All seven operate in Florida.

Insurers may have to hike percentage spent on care

 

[JW Frogen]

This is sadly why the current legislation, the plan Obama never had the time to manage, the plan the Congress is mutating into political connivance rather than health care efficiency will not contain cost.

You have to have a non-profit alternative to private insurance in order to make private insurance serve the customer rather than solely their share holders.

What I fear is the Congress has come up with a government subsidy plan for private insurers made cost effective by cuts in Medicare.

And so says all of me.

 

[LuckyDan]

Hello, Chris

Any figures comparing who denies more claims between private insurers and Medicare? Or who pays more litigation costs?

 

[LuckyDan]

This is sadly why the current legislation, the plan Obama never had the time to manage, the plan the Congress is mutating into political connivance rather than health care efficiency will not contain cost.

You have to have a non-profit alternative to private insurance in order to make private insurance serve the customer rather than solely their share holders.

What I fear is the Congress has come up with a government subsidy plan for private insurers made cost effective by cuts in Medicare.

And so says all of me.

Shareholders in any insurance company don't see dime one until claims are paid and payroll is met. They are always the last in line, no matter what the business.

 

[The Rabbi]

And the relevance of this is??

 

[chanel]

I was just going to ask this question. The senate bill mandates that 80% be spent on patient care. I am not that business-savvy, but was curious what other service industries consider reasonable operating costs and profit margins. Is 20% reasonable?

 

[The Rabbi]

Twenty percent is not the profit margin. I think most health insurers would be thrilled to be making as much as software companies.

I wonder about this knee jerk reaction I see here. Whenever companies are making profits it is assumed to be "at the expense" of someone, like the consumer. So profit making is a negative.
In the real world profits are what allow higher salaries, better benefits, more research and development, and a better economy. All things one would imagine would be desirable.

 

[chanel]

Is the 20% operating cost comparable to Medicare and Medicaid? Dumb question I guess.

Many health insurers have gone "non-profit". I wonder if they all will now. And I also wonder how that will affect tax revenue. Aren't non-profits tax exempt?

 

[The Rabbi]

I dont know. The evidence appears to be that having "non profit" insurers doesnt cut costs for insurance.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Just a thought... Everybody is bitching about all of the proffits that insurance companies make and are using this for one of the many reasons this Health Care Reform bullshit is going to be rammed down our throats by a Congress that doesn't care anything about what the majority of Americans want. Now my question is this. Who will be bitching about all of the proffits our government makes when they eventually take over and run the insurance companies out of business? Although there is no "Public Option" stated in the plan that the Dems will pass in the middle of the night like theives who can't do something in public during regular daylight hours, you know before it's all over with there will be one. No matter what the Constitution says... Will people then bitch about the government's large proffits because you know they will be rationing care and not paying certain claims too. Just like a salesman who gets his foot in the door, the government is going to continue to take over your life and the liberals will love it - at least until the 2010 and 2012 elections.

 

[AVG-JOE]

This is sadly why the current legislation, the plan Obama never had the time to manage, the plan the Congress is mutating into political connivance rather than health care efficiency will not contain cost.

You have to have a non-profit alternative to private insurance in order to make private insurance serve the customer rather than solely their share holders.

What I fear is the Congress has come up with a government subsidy plan for private insurers made cost effective by cuts in Medicare.

And so says all of me.

Shareholders in any insurance company don't see dime one until claims are paid and payroll is met. They are always the last in line, no matter what the business.

Bullshit!

The shareholders are ALWAYS first in line! The executives (who are all shareholders) make certain of that.

The laws and regulations creating the strangle-hold monopoly that the few insurance companies in this country have over us are the best that money can buy.

Somebody is making money hand over fist in the health-care biz - just follow the leash around your congresscritters neck back, past the hand of the lobbyist holding it, all the way back to the hand holding the leash of the corporation that holds the leash of the lobbyists and you will find the most effective place to meet with pitch-forks and torches.

 

[AVG-JOE]

I was just going to ask this question. The senate bill mandates that 80% be spent on patient care. I am not that business-savvy, but was curious what other service industries consider reasonable operating costs and profit margins. Is 20% reasonable?

Social Security pays out 98.8% of premiums collected in benefits. I would say that there is your gold standard, at least for an option that does not need to feed million-dollar executives.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Twenty percent is not the profit margin. I think most health insurers would be thrilled to be making as much as software companies.

I wonder about this knee jerk reaction I see here. Whenever companies are making profits it is assumed to be "at the expense" of someone, like the consumer. So profit making is a negative.
In the real world profits are what allow higher salaries, better benefits, more research and development, and a better economy. All things one would imagine would be desirable.

Profits are not needed to provide insurance or banking services. Neither industry actually makes anything and should therefore not be considered 'industry'.

All you need to form an insurance pool is a lot of money, a computer and people with management skills worth between $30,000 and $200,000 per year.

There is no reason ANYONE should be making a few to tens of millions of dollars managing an insurance pool - we are paying them WAY more than they are worth.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Is the 20% operating cost comparable to Medicare and Medicaid? Dumb question I guess.

Many health insurers have gone "non-profit". I wonder if they all will now. And I also wonder how that will affect tax revenue. Aren't non-profits tax exempt?

As long as the executive pay plans include bonuses with seven figures, 'Non-Profit' is just a term for lawyers and lobbyists to placate the masses with.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Chris is easily fooled by numbers and perhaps shiny objects as well. If you believe that Medicare is the most ruthlessly efficient provider of healthcare dollars you might also believe that burning "Fossil Fuels" is making the planet warmer in the middle of a cooling period.

What a rube

 

[Yukon]

My friends you can relax. OBAMA has won, you are getting UNIVERSAAL MEDICARE.
Welcome to the 21st Century !

 

[CrusaderFrank]

"Aetna's revenue growth is very different from its profit margin," Ghose wrote in an e-mail. "Our after-tax profit is less than 4 percent"

Ohhhhh, numbers! Must have Congressional oversight!

 

[Yukon]

Gee they only made 497 million in QIII. Doesn't it make you feel sorry for them ?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Gee they only made 497 million in QIII. Doesn't it make you feel sorry for them ?

I feel sorry for you, you Librul loser. You can't hack it in the real world so you have the Gubbamint tear down anyone who even tries. Fucking loser.

Bad profitstsesesessss baddd we hatessssssss them! hates them!!

Go enjoy your 2 minute Hate mindless loser

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Gee they only made 497 million in QIII. Doesn't it make you feel sorry for them ?

Oh and Arafat died of AIDS and syphilis from fucking sheep, camels and little boys