Sunday, October 25, 2009
FACT CHECK: Health Insurer Profits Not So Fat - ABC News
There's no getting around that almost everything about health care is being misrepresented and distorted.
Even worse, the media continues to blindly publish those misrepresentations and distortions with no investigative filter and no proof of accuracy.
It's a very bad situation for the American public...
Even worse, the media continues to blindly publish those misrepresentations and distortions with no investigative filter and no proof of accuracy.
It's a very bad situation for the American public...
The Associated Press' Calvin Woodward writes about it at ABCnews.com:
"Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo?
Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making 'immoral' and 'obscene' returns while 'the bodies pile up.'
Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure."
