Thursday, December 11, 2008

Remove the Middle Man!

Look very carefully at the role the insurance companies have played in our current healthcare crisis. Today’s health insurance industry is BIG BUSINESS. The companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions,while the rest of us, employers and workers alike, face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-diminishing insurance denials.
HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:
1. UnitedHealth Group -- $ 4,654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford,PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, ahealthcare data company
2. WellPoint -- $ 3,345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US,including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia,Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, HealthyAlliance, and many others
3. Aetna Inc. -- $ 1,831 BILLION
4. CIGNA Corp -- $ 1,115 BILLION
5. Humana Inc. -- $ 834 million
6. Coventry Health Care -- $626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink,Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others
7. Health Net -- $ 194 million
The huge insurance company profits could provide healthcare for the entire U.S., and pay physicians adequately for their work.
Get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare. The solution is a non-profit, single-payer healthcare system – and the single payer should not be an insurance company or a group of insurance companies.

No comments: