Insurance company WellPoint benefits because Americans are too broke to see a doctor

[marmar]

By Pat Wechsler


Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- WellPoint Inc., the largest U.S. health insurer by enrollment, reported fourth-quarter profit that rose more than analyst estimates as a national jobless rate above 9 percent kept Americans out of doctors’ offices.

Profit excluding one-time items climbed to $1.33 a share, beating the average estimate of $1.22 by 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income fell to $548.8 million, or $1.40, from $2.74 billion, or $5.95, a year earlier, when earnings were boosted by the $4.7 billion sale of a drug-benefits unit, WellPoint said. Net income for 2011 is expected to be at least $6.30 a share, the insurer said. Analysts had estimated a forecast of $6.59.

WellPoint benefited from cost-conscious Americans deferring medical treatment, a trend that reduced expenses for all health insurers in the past two years. A slow start to the current flu season also helped, Chief Executive Officer Angela Braly said on a conference call today. The Indianapolis-based insurer has also been able to negotiate lower prices with some health-care providers in California and other states, Chief Financial Officer Wayne Deveydt said on the call.

These lower costs are expected to continue, “boosting earnings potential in 2011,” said Dave Shove, a New York-based analyst with Bank of Montreal. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aCM1q5_tMpgU

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. Mandates, baby!

:evilgrin:

[woo me with science]

3. +10000 nt

[Lasher]

2. The migration to catastrophic-only coverage is working as planned.

You can't afford to get your blood pressure checked out, but your policy kicks in when you go to the emergency room with a heart attack so that the government doesn't have to pay your bill.

[postulater]

4. That is AFTER you meet your $5000 deductible.

But that's ok because the ER visit costs more than that anyhow.

[Lasher]

5. Don't forget your minimum 20% copays.

And be grateful those 'cadillac' health insurance plans are being phased out for everybody else, because...I can't remember what was supposed to be the good thing about that.

[postulater]

6. I haven't seen any info about how the new law

deals with the expense of the insurance.

Exactly how is it supposed to make care more affordable if the deductibles keep going up and copays are higher than the office visit?

What I see so far is that everyone will be forced to pay for a policy they will never receive any benefits from since they can't afford the deductible.

Without some check on out of pocket expenses the new law is useless.

[Lasher]

8. I don't know that either, I was thinking of the trend toward high copay coverage.

I'm lucky. I have good retiree medical coverage for now, plus VA benefits to fall back on. I have foot surgery tomorrow morning and I'll only have to copay 10%. There is no deductible. There is no good reason why we can't all have coverage that is at least as good. But I digress.

'Affordable' is a euphemistic corporate-ease code word for shitty. If an employer tells you they are going to make your health insurance more 'affordable' or more 'competitive', that means they are going to make it cheaper for them and shittier for you. If people in the government say they are going to 'reform' Social Security, it's the same thing: less cost for the government, shittier for you.

'Affordable' health care insurance means it has low premiums, without your employer paying any percentage. You can afford to have it, but you can't afford to use it. That's why the premiums are cheap. But stop whining, everybody's covered.

[cutlassmama]

7. They're hoping we all die from that heart attack so we won't

have to be covered. Death panels - hurry up and die.

[Lasher]

9. That's right, work yourself into an early grave, then jump in.

Quietly if you don't mind, so you won't become too much of an annoyance.