dagblog - Comments for "Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?"

It's in links provided above

Fred Moolten — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:52:18 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

It's in links provided above by Oleeb. You are welcome to cite your own data sources, but I think you'll find that the numbers I gave are correct.

That isn't the numbers I have

thepeoplechoose — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:18:30 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

That isn't the numbers I have read.

That's incorrect. Overhead

Fred Moolten — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:23:01 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

That's incorrect. Overhead is typically less than 15 cents, and the total of overhead plus profits (i.e. everything that doesn't go to pay for medical services) is 15-20 cents.

The bullshit expennditures

thepeoplechoose — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:08:40 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

The bullshit expennditures are 30 cents on a dollar as I recall.

See my comments above on

Fred Moolten — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:31:39 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

See my comments above on medical loss ratios. Most of the premium dollar is spent to pay for medical services, with the remaining 15-20 percent used for profits and overhead, including all the items you mention. It's more than necessary, but not nearly as much as you may have been led to believe.

You are right that insurers employ staff to identify cost cutting measures that often deprive subscribers of needed care. Proposed reforms are designed to rectify this abuse, but this is mainly a fairness issue rather than an issue of high insurer profits. Eliminating these staff practices will be emotionally gratifying, but it won't save too many dollars out of the healthcare budget.

In fact we'd save money by

tiggers thotful spot — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:07:48 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

In fact we'd save money by having the federal treasury buy all the outstanding stock of for-profit insurers. We'd make the money back in a few years, just from paying them to go away and stop killing people by denying care.

Their after tax profit is

thepeoplechoose — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:55:38 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

Their after tax profit is nothing compared to the amount of money they just flat throw away on bullshit stuff that is written off as business expenses. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, I've seen them published in articles, but the money they spend on marketing alone is obscene. Not to mention the huge sums the industry spends on lobbying efforts. Then there is all the money they spend for boondoggle conferences all over the place doing who knows what. They blow more money on useless stuff than most people can even imagine. Having people or departments whose sole purpose is to figure ways to screw customers is a bit of a waste too.

Yeah, it was. Thanks for

oleeb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:56:07 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

Yeah, it was. Thanks for putting it in perspective for us Gregor.

It's really amazing how an

oleeb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:54:43 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

It's really amazing how an otherwise smart guy simply refuses to get it. Fred, the profits these guys make are gigantic. There's just no two ways around it. To view it from the myopic lense of profit as a percentage of revenue vs looking honestly at the hoard of money they make for themselves is just absurd. They make billions Fred, billions in profits and that is by defnition obscene no matter what their friggin percentage of profit is. How you take justification for your argument out of an article that demonstrates the industry is lying about it's obscene profits is incredible.

Artappraiser - Thanks for

Fred Moolten — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:44:50 +0000

In reply to Calvin Woodward: Insurance Industry Whore Or The Biggest Insurance Industry Whore At The AP?

Artappraiser - Thanks for your insightful comment about "sticker shock". I think you're right.

On another point, all I can say is that over the course of hundreds of arguments on the Internet on TPM and elsewhere, I strongly doubt that I have ever changed anyone's mind, or at the least the minds of those I was arguing with. My assumption is that these discussions are sometimes read by open-minded bystanders trying to gain an accurate understanding of an issue. In that sense, I try to provide a factual basis, as I see it, that would let them judge the disagreements in ways that lead to reasonable conclusions. When it comes to individuals with set opinions, changing minds is "above my pay grade".