3 ms·

That ~5% worked out to almost 4 billion profit last year for my healthcare company. They are incentivized to decline coverage as much as they possibly can and

That ~5% worked out to almost 4 billion profit last year for my healthcare company. They are incentivized to decline coverage as much as they possibly can and have a long history showing they want to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(company)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(company)#Controversies The DMHC randomly selected 90 instances where Anthem Blue Cross canceled the insurance of policy holders who had been diagnosed with costly or life-threatening illnesses, to find how many of these cancellations were legal. The agency concluded that all these cancellations were illegal. Falling on "it was an act of war" when no government has declared such a war is nothing more than creative accounting. (this is also Anthem) On 17 March 2010, WellPoint announced it was reclassifying some of its administrative costs as medical care costs in order to meet new loss ratio requirements under the health care law, which requires insurers to spend at least 80% or 85% of customer premiums on health care services, depending on the type of plan.[5 https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-die-in-the-US-each-year-from-denied-medical-insurance-claims https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-die-in-the-US-each-yea... https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/business/26care.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/business/26care.html https://www.thedailybeast.com/my-insurance-company-killed-me-despite-obamacare https://www.thedailybeast.com/my-insurance-company-killed-me...

jaredklewis 8y ago
Yes, they are profit making companies. Those profits are distributed to investors, in the case of Anthem, that's mostly institutional investors, i.e. people's retirement funds. What's your point? Anthem's 4% margins are well below the S&P 500 average of 11%. If Anthem was simply stealing surely their margins would be a little higher? And who are the idiots buying Anthem insurance? I mean, if it was just stealing, everyone would take their money somewhere else, no? Of course the truth is not simple, but rather complex. Most any company has a "Controversies" section on their wikipedia page. Toyota once shipped a car with bad brakes. What does it mean? Are all companies simply stealing? Yes, insurance companies are incentivized to decline coverage, so that they can lower premiums (to compete) and increase margins. But they are also incentivized to payout because if they don't, people stop buying insurance. > Falling on "it was an act of war" when no government has declared such a war is nothing more than creative accounting. (this is also Anthem) Quite certain that is not how the courts will interpret the term "act of war." In international law, for example, there is certainly no precedent that a government declaration of war is required for an act to be considered an act of war. Any aggressive act can potentially be considered an act of war. If Russia decided to blow up a bunch of US freighters, sans-declaration of war, fairly certain the act could pass as an act of war.
- benologist 8y ago
  If California had investigated 100 of Anthem's paying customers' cancelled policies at random, instead of 90, and found 100 were illegally cancelled because of the cost instead of the 90 out of 90 they found to be illegally cancelled because of the cost, would it be stealing then? What is it if it's not stealing when you take people's money in exchange for a service but illegally close their account and keep the money they paid instead of providing the service? In May 2014, Anthem Blue Cross refused to pay for the hospitalization of a Sonoma County, California man for stage four cancers, although he had paid Anthem over $100,000.00 in premiums.[61][62] Anthem ended up paying for coverage following public outcry.[63].
  - jaredklewis 8y ago
    You are making the following argument: 1. Anthem Insurance stole from policy holders. 2. Ergo, Zurich Insurance stole from Mondelez. If you are going to make a claim that all insurers are systematically stealing from their customers, I think you are a long way off. So Toyota sometimes ships cars with bad breaks. Ergo all car companies are trying to kill drivers?
    - benologist 8y ago
      Are health insurance companies abnormal or representative of non-health insurance companies? Zurich Insurance doesn't look better at all based on the submitted article - specifically covered “all risks of physical loss or damage” and “all risk of physical loss or damage to electronic data, programs or software” due to “the malicious introduction of a machine code or instruction.”

jaredklewis 8y ago

Yes, they are profit making companies. Those profits are distributed to investors, in the case of Anthem, that's mostly institutional investors, i.e. people's retirement funds. What's your point? Anthem's 4% margins are well below the S&P 500 average of 11%. If Anthem was simply stealing surely their margins would be a little higher? And who are the idiots buying Anthem insurance? I mean, if it was just stealing, everyone would take their money somewhere else, no? Of course the truth is not simple, but rather complex. Most any company has a "Controversies" section on their wikipedia page. Toyota once shipped a car with bad brakes. What does it mean? Are all companies simply stealing? Yes, insurance companies are incentivized to decline coverage, so that they can lower premiums (to compete) and increase margins. But they are also incentivized to payout because if they don't, people stop buying insurance. > Falling on "it was an act of war" when no government has declared such a war is nothing more than creative accounting. (this is also Anthem) Quite certain that is not how the courts will interpret the term "act of war." In international law, for example, there is certainly no precedent that a government declaration of war is required for an act to be considered an act of war. Any aggressive act can potentially be considered an act of war. If Russia decided to blow up a bunch of US freighters, sans-declaration of war, fairly certain the act could pass as an act of war.

benologist 8y ago
If California had investigated 100 of Anthem's paying customers' cancelled policies at random, instead of 90, and found 100 were illegally cancelled because of the cost instead of the 90 out of 90 they found to be illegally cancelled because of the cost, would it be stealing then? What is it if it's not stealing when you take people's money in exchange for a service but illegally close their account and keep the money they paid instead of providing the service? In May 2014, Anthem Blue Cross refused to pay for the hospitalization of a Sonoma County, California man for stage four cancers, although he had paid Anthem over $100,000.00 in premiums.[61][62] Anthem ended up paying for coverage following public outcry.[63].
- jaredklewis 8y ago
  You are making the following argument: 1. Anthem Insurance stole from policy holders. 2. Ergo, Zurich Insurance stole from Mondelez. If you are going to make a claim that all insurers are systematically stealing from their customers, I think you are a long way off. So Toyota sometimes ships cars with bad breaks. Ergo all car companies are trying to kill drivers?
  - benologist 8y ago
    Are health insurance companies abnormal or representative of non-health insurance companies? Zurich Insurance doesn't look better at all based on the submitted article - specifically covered “all risks of physical loss or damage” and “all risk of physical loss or damage to electronic data, programs or software” due to “the malicious introduction of a machine code or instruction.”