More Proof Big-Profit Insurers Doomed; Single Payer Coming Sooner Rather Than Later [View all]

[kpete]

Yet, a report issued this week by, of all places, the conservative Galen Institute, reveals that you can’t judge the long-term viability of an industry by its current share price. Indeed, the results of the Galen study highlight that the exodus of insurance companies from the health insurance business may be happening far more quickly than I imagined.

Among the many companies that are dropping out of the business —rather than comply with the MLR requirements that would force them to actually spend an appropriate share of the premium monies received from customers on real health care— are some of the nation’s largest carriers.

Principal Financial Group had already announced late last year that they were leaving the health insurance business, impacting on some 840,000 insured.

Another key player in the business, Cigna, has decided to quit the small business market in states like California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

MORE:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/28/more-proof-that-the-american-for-profit-health-insurance-model-is-doomed/



So, like it or not—as the growing exodus of insurers from the marketplace bears out—government, single-payer coverage is coming.

The only question is whether we will get out in front of the problem that will be created by private insurers bailing or wait, as we often do, for the system to collapse.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/28/1049496/-Rick-Ungar:-More-Proof-Big-Profit-Insurers-Doomed;-Single-Payer-Coming-Sooner-Rather-Than-Later?via=siderec