Now, to confuse the liberal progressives more with facts lets look at the evil health care insurance companies HUGE profits.
And how are they suppose to compete with guvmint run (welfare) or non profit health care "insurance" setups? Shows how the liberal progressives and those that follow them and promote their propaganda have no idea how this great free market, free enterprise country became great.
Sad, former great Dem party.
FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat
WASHINGTON (AP) - 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. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.
Insurers are an expedient target for leaders who want a government-run plan in the marketplace. Such a public option would force private insurers to trim profits and restrain premiums to compete, the argument goes. This would "keep insurance companies honest," says President Barack Obama.
The debate is loaded with intimations that insurers are less than straight, when they are not flatly accused of malfeasance.
They may not have helped their case by commissioning a report that looked primarily at the elements of health care legislation that might drive consumer costs up while ignoring elements aimed at bringing costs down. Few in the debate seem interested in a true balance sheet.
But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. A look at some claims, and the numbers:
THE CLAIMS
_"I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers'"obscene profits."
_"Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed." Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.
_"Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe." A MoveOn.org ad.
THE NUMBERS:
Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.
The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.
UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.
Van Hollen is right that premiums have more than doubled in a decade, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found a 131 percent increase.
But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?
Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.
The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.
Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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" thought the president was being reasonable by taking his time before committing 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. You'd think, we would have learned a lesson from Iraq but the very same people that rushed to war in Iraq are accusing this president of dithering"
From a blogger who is unable to stand a word of disagreement on his blog
He must mean all the Democrats who favored the war in Irag. Hillary C John Kerry Teddy K and on and on. I read on one of the Democrats Forever blog an accusation the Herbert Hoover "dithering" about finanicial problems was a big cause ot the depression.
October 28, 2009 at 12:51 p.m.Do even the most devoted true believers in the Democrat party. Those who will proclaim all Democrat leaders speak the truth always,( we all see them posting on here) actually believe that what ever, whoever's healthcare scheme is passed that it will be REVENUE NEUTRAL?
October 28, 2009 at 12:18 p.m.Clarification: Every poll on the issue reports that approximately 85% of those polled are satisfied with their health coverage and 15% are not satisfied. While this could lead one to conclude that 15% of the population are unable to get health insurance, a conclusion encouraged by the left-wing advocates of socialized medicine, aka Obamacare, it is not true. If one excludes non-citizens (legal and illegal), those eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP who have not signed up for it, and those uninsured with annual incomes greater than $50,000, we are left with 3.1% of the population, NOT 15%. So, Obama and his fellow travelers are proposing a multi-trillion dollar upheaval of the best healthcare system on the planet to impose a system on us that they are forced to admit, when pressed, will probably not insure all, or even most, of this 3.1% of the population. When you cut through the propaganda and get to the reality of what is being proposed, it is hard to understand how any rational person without a desire to introduce Socialism into this country could favor it.
October 28, 2009 at 11:19 a.m.And the Yellow Dog Dems on here quote Pelosi and crew on the EEEVEELE Insurance Companies and their OBSCENE profits. The lies about the profits are truly obscene lies on Pelosi and crowd and plain stupidity from those on here who continuially rant and rave about the OBSCENE profits of the insurance companies. Most of the obscene profit rants on here come from ones who have no idea of what constitutes profit margins. The big media is just as guilty. They quote only the raw numbers of the profits. Never the percentage.
October 27, 2009 at 6:34 p.m.Healthcare is an Obama dream that is all it is. 85% like their healthcare coverage, vs. 15% that do not have coverage. The figures just do not add up. This Congress is nothing more than a bunch of idiots with a government credit card with no limit on it. Obama has bankrupted this country with a budget that is the highest in the history of this country. He wants a new healthcare system that we can’t pay for, but he refuse to balance the budget or even make an attempt at it. But we do have the Chicago mobsters in office, so they do what ever it takes to get what they want... Obama is a smooth talking liar. He was elected, but with enough money you could elect a monkey...
October 27, 2009 at 2 p.m.