WALL STREET HEALTH CARE: Insurance company stocks “on fire” – they’re winning, we’re losing.

[chimpymustgo]

By: Jason Rosenbaum Thursday December 17, 2009 2:39 pm

So screams the Business Insider.

If you need a guide to the health reform debate in Washington, take a look at health insurance company stocks. When the debate is going the right way – towards quality, affordable health care for everyone, towards getting people out from under the insurance industry’s crushing monopoly – insurance company stocks take a dive. When the debate is moving against what America wants – towards more private industry, less insurance regulations, and the like – health care stocks soar.

Right now, they’re soaring. The Indianapolis Star goes into more detail:

Shares of the Indianapolis-based health insurance giant surged to a 52-week high Thursday as the prospects for a new government-run "public option" health plan faded amid intense Senate debate. WellPoint rivals Cigna and UnitedHealth Group also hit 52-week highs.

It’s a sign, more than one observer suggested, of victory for private health insurers, which strenuously fought the public option.

"Obviously, the market thinks WellPoint’s a winner," said Daniel Evans, chief executive of Clarian Health, an Indianapolis-based hospital system. "If the public option is no longer on the table, then WellPoint is a winner because it’s not threatened by a government competitor."

Wall Street is what has turned our nation’s health care companies into profiteers.

16 years ago, before most of the insurance companies were publicly traded, they spent 95% of premium dollars on health care. That level is comparable to Medicare, which spends 97% of premium dollars on care. But once these companies went public and started trading on Wall Street, the relentless drive for profit drove down that percentage to where it sits today, at 81%.

-edit-

Wall Street run health care is making huge profits right now. It’s also making Americans sicker and sicker. A health care reform bill that does not take away Wall Street’s power – one without a public option, one that doesn’t mandate insurers spend 90% of their premiums on care, one without strict regulations on denying care or charging more to certain customers – will tacitly support the way the health care business works now, with Wall Street in charge.

The Senate bill, in too many ways, is the Wall Street bill. The House bill stands up to Wall Street. That’s presents real problems for the American people, problems that must be fixed before this bill is sent to the President’s desk.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/19532

[mbperrin]

1. It's a trillion dollar giveaway to an industry that does not add one test,

one doctor, one procedure to healthcare. In fact, the only way they profit is by taking money for care and then denying care.

Max premiums minus no care = total profit.

Single payer is the only way to both provide universal care and to save money, and it is the only option I will support. Kill anything else.

[chimpymustgo]

4. As Keith put it, this is not about health care, and it's not about reform.

[bfarq]

5. And why all the silence re: anti-trust?

If we are committing everything to private insurance, it makes no sense for them to have an antitrust exemption. Where are the "progressive Senators" on this? That's the absolute minimum we should demand in this package.

[SharonAnn]

2. Yet, resignedly, I think we need to get this signed now. There will be future changes,

as they always are.

There simply comes a time when we have all that we're going to get and we need to finalize it.

It's not what I wanted, universal health care for all, but it is better than what we've got in place now. And, let's face it, we're not going to get anything better with the Senate we now have.

The next thing is to continue working on getting more Progressives and Liberals elected. If we really believe in that philosophy, it's our life's work to continue working on it.

Ted Kennedy didn't give up and we shouldn't either.

[Hannah Bell]

12. BULL.

[TheWebHead]

3. they aren't really "on fire"

they've underperformed many other sectors this year and while they are at 52 week highs after moving up about 10% in recent weeks, UNH is still 50% below its 2006 high while Wellpoint would have to go up another 50% to match its 2008 high. Having to insure pre-existing patients and removing any caps is a significant issue for these companies, since we're talking about insurance being all about pricing risk. You enter a period of uncertainty being able to adjust to a model that isn't defined. You buy car or life insurance, you don't have an unlimited potential benefit, and with this current bill, the liability isn't defined. I think what's happening is some irrational relief about the removal of a public option while ignoring pre existing/caps headwinds.

[chimpymustgo]

7. Rremoval of the pulbic option was the booster.

[ipaint]

6. Goldman Sachs is into the health ins. business.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7277153

This reform is all about wall street and the future profits of the medical industry. If this was real reform the drop in stock value would continue unabated for years to come. Without a mandate the ins. companies will be significantly reduced both in size and power. Losing over 100 million paying customers to medicare in the next decade and a half without the replacements never mind the increase in customers needed to satiate shareholder greed.
Without a mandate Goldman Sachs and their co-horts in crime wouldn't be getting into the health care denial business.

This reform was fixed at least three years ago. The middle class severely underesimates it's opponent who has relied on that naivete combined with good PR to enable their own victory before the end of this year.

Chumps with wallets. That's what the middle class is to these corporations.

[phasma ex machina]

8. Big biz scores again in appropriating government to use as its own personal "muscle." nt

[Deja Q]

9. Health care reform. Sponsored by the meaningless buzzwords "quality" and "affordable"

[bluesmail]

10. Wall St knows just how to manipulate the markets for their own profits. EOM

[OneBlueSky]

11. and if anyone needs proof that this bill is bad for consumers, there it is . . .

if the insurance companies are going to make windfall profits from this bill, the money will be coming out of your pocket and mine . . . that's pretty much all you need to know to oppose this phoney healthcare reform, which is actually an ATM bill for insurance companies . . .

[Quantess]

13. That is the "tell".

The insurance companies got their way, and only a few crumbs thrown to the American people.