Why are we shocked and disgusted that corporations seek to maximize profits when that is their fiduciary responsibility to investors???
What is happening is exactly what the not for profit advocates have been saying, the for profit companies will find a way to cherry pick the healthiest customers and dump the not so healthy customers into the public plan.
Aetna Asks For It
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_12/021313.php"...It's interesting, then, to see Aetna announce that it intends to "force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations." It's also raising premiums on its customers -- again.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did the right thing today when he called Aetna out. (Jed Lewison has the video)..."
Aetna to dump 600,000 members
http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/11/30/aetna-to-dump-600000-members/"This act by Aetna indicates the level of sincerity the insurance industry has in its alleged new effort to cooperate in ensuring that everyone has the health care coverage that they need. Aetna is redesigning and repricing its products in order to dump over 600,000 of its less profitable members. They need to be sure that “each customer is priced to an appropriate margin.” And, above all, they owe it to their shareholders “to drive away sicker members.”
...Once Aetna dumps these members, what private insurer is going to jump in to capture this higher cost population? None you say? And under reform? The higher cost individuals buy into the weak public option driving premiums up through adverse selection to even more unaffordable levels?Try to imagine Medicare dumping over 600,000 patients because they need more medical care. That is unthinkable and would be reprehensible in a public social insurance program such as Medicare.
Yet for the private insurance industry, it’s business as usual. And President Obama and Congress want to keep these marketeers in charge? Talk about reprehensible!"http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0824/outfront-insurance-premiums-aetna-ron-williams-health-reform.html08.05.09"...Not, until now, much of a public persona, Williams, 59, is taking a surprisingly visible role in arguing for change in the health care system.
He has met with Obama a half-dozen times (he shrugs off the surname gaffe), has testified four times in front of Senate committees this year......In the short term Aetna has bigger problems. The company reported a 28% fall in profit in the second quarter. Aetna's actuaries didn't see a rise in claims and priced coverage too low. Aetna now estimates it will pay out 85 cents in claims for every dollar it receives in premiums. That's 5% higher than last year.
Williams says the company is fixing the problem. Barclays ( BCS - news - people ) HMO analyst Joshua Raskin predicts that by next year Aetna will right the ship--by cutting 600,000 members.ABC Health: Aetna CEO Ron Williams to Obama - this is not a level playing field - at the White house meeting
This was the televised meeting where ABC had originally invited President Obama's personal physician of over 20 years, he was then told the invitation had been cancelled...he had planned to ask a question about a not for profit, single payer system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdnipiMV64Congressman Dennis Kucinich after voting against H.R. 3962 addresses why he voted NO, stating:
http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2838"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system...."Originally posted below.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7166025&mesg_id=7166704 
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