10.3 Billion in Profit: UHG Insurance says thanks for saying no to single payer.

[Skwmom]

Last edited Thu Sep 17, 2015, 10:29 PM - Edit history (3)

UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer, reported last week that it made $10.3 billion in profits in 2014 on revenues of $130.5 billion. Both profits and revenues grew seven percent from 2013.

United impressed Wall Street so much that investors pushed its share price to an all-time high. When the New York Stock Exchange closed last Thursday, United’s share price stood at $113.85, a record.

To put that in perspective, United’s share price was $30.40 on March 23, 2010, the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Since then, the company’s price per share has increased an astonishing 375 percent. That’s way more than either the Dow Jones or Standard & Poors averages has grown during the same period.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/26/16658/health-insurers-watch-profits-soar-they-dump-small-business-customers

Bernie is right about medicare for all.

I guess record profits isn't all unicorns and wishing upon a rainbow for insurance companies.

I applaud President Obama for passing the ACA and providing medical care for many who before had none. However, moving to a single payer system would be more cost effective. With rising health insurance premiums, this will be an issue that they use to divide us and pit the poor against the middle class (or what's left of it). We need to provide everyone with health care , not health insurance because that is the most cost effective method.

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[randys1]

2. Now you know why Roberts did what he did, twice.

ACA is FAR better than what we had, period.

But we have to go much further.

[Skwmom]

5. It was a starting point but it needs to move to medicare for all. n/t

[liberal_at_heart]

3. That have had an influx of captive customers. They are loving life right now. Meanwhile, the

rest of us are choking on our deductibles and copays.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Score a big win for the

Heritage Foundation with the help of many Blue Dogs. Eye lash short of Single Payer.

[hifiguy]

6. Yet another thumb on the scales for Bernie.

Medicare for all, NOW.

Put these rotten parasites out of business.

[Doctor_J]

7. Mrs Clinton likes having these creatures in the system. she says sp won't work, and

promises to keep the insurance CEos in yachts.

[Skwmom]

14. While the premiums and deductible increase each year. n/t

[brooklynite]

8. When Sanders was in the Senate in 2010, who did he convince to change their vote on Single Payer?

The honest answer is that the votes weren't there in 2010, and even if Sanders wins the Election, the votes won't be there in 2017.

[Jim Lane]

10. The votes for Medicare weren't there in 1948.

Truman pushed on health care, and JFK pushed on health care, and the cumulative effect was that LBJ signed Medicare into law. See "A brief history of Medicare in America".

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Often that first step is Presidential leadership. If the President (for example, a moderate/centrist President) just says, "Oh, well, the votes aren't there," and does nothing, then the votes may never be there.

[brooklynite]

11. Bringing me back to my question: if Sanders "pushed" on Single Payer, what can he show for it?

[Jim Lane]

13. I referred to PRESIDENTIAL leadership

If your view is that someone who's been in the Senate for three years (as Sanders had been as of the ACA debate) has as much clout as the President of the United States, then you and I are proceeding on vastly different assumptions.

My argument is that, if the President pushes for single payer, that makes it more likely that we'll get single payer -- maybe not right away, maybe not even within that President's term, but sometime. If President Sanders pushes for it, maybe what he can show for it is that, in 2035, President Castro (one of them) signs it into law.

I'm curious about your view on single payer. Do you think it's completely out of the question that we would enact single payer anytime in, say, the next 50 years? If you see some chance that it will happen, what's the pathway? Specifically, does the most plausible pathway involve Presidential leadership, or do you see it happening because support in Congress somehow builds with little or no involvement from the White House?

[DanTex]

16. He could have shown some leadership in Vermont, where he is hugely popular and influential.

But it couldn't even get passed there. If there was any doubt that single payer is not happening in the US, the Vermont debacle vanquished it.

[Skwmom]

12. There will eventually be. But if we don't take the first step, there never will be. n/t

[NCTraveler]

9. They were given millions of new customers.

We're profits ever in question?

[sabrina 1]

15. The private insurance corps wrote the bill. They wanted more, granted, but

overall they saved their business which was faltering due to unemployment being so high for one reason, after the financial collapse, since for whatever reason, HC is tied to employment in this country.

So something had to be done to save them.

[Zorra]

17. My income varies substantially by year, and I'm still paying off the IRS

because I made more money than I estimated on my Obamacare enrollment application. I'm still paying for for the exorbitant pricing of services I received, and services I did not receive but was charged for, unjust charges for which I have no recourse for redress. The system is better with Obamacare, especially for those living in serious poverty, but it still sucks, and it is bleeding the upper working class and middle class dry. And the bleeding will continue to worsen daily.

We need single payer. The natural core characteristic of corporate capitalism is greed. These health insurance companies will continue to raise premiums, and health care providers, etc. will continue to raise the cost of their goods and services.

The cost of healthcare insurance will continue to skyrocket until we either get single payer, or revolt.

We need single payer now.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers private health insurance companies." - paraphrased from Dick the Butcher, in Shakespeare's play ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73

[kenfrequed]

18. We need single payer

Anyone that makes an argument otherwise, no matter what candidate they support is really not doing anyone any favors.