What do we need health insurers for anyway?

[Joanne98]

When the chief executive of gargantuan health insurer WellPoint (parent of Blue Cross of California) went before a congressional subcommittee the other day, she displayed all the smile-through-the-tears pluck of Annie looking to a sunny tomorrow or Scarlett swearing to God she'll never be hungry again.

WellPoint didn't really want to jack up health premiums on its customers by as much as 39%, she said -- it had no choice. "We care deeply about our California customers," she said.

Braly explained that her company's premium increases on individual policies were based on several circumstances: One, people are getting older. Two, people are becoming unemployed, and if they're healthy they're dropping out of the insurance pool. Three, the cost of diagnostic testing is soaring.

Implicitly, she begged for the government to help -- put people back to work so they're eligible for cheaper group plans, and clamp down on costs. (Not even the government can stop people for growing older.) Without that help, she intimated, premiums are going to keep rising sharply and WellPoint's already meager profits are going to be hammered worse.

In delivering this appeal, Braly was forced to make an implicit admission that her industry almost never makes explicitly: The nation's health coverage system is so hopelessly broken that even the health insurance industry can't handle it anymore.

Continued>>>
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik28-2010feb28,0,1011707.column

[dkf]

1. I never understood why health insurance is given the role of controlling costs.

That's not the role of insurance. Ridiculous.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Good question! The answer is we don't! nt

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr - they add no value to our HC system, all they do is take a profit. n/t

[DisgustedInMN]

4. Why do we need them?

Someone has to own our government through bribes to the elected and keep it from working in We the People best interests.:sarcasm:

Congresscritters and Corporatists in the WH need to feather their nests, doncha know?

[Captain Hilts]

5. The Prez says they perform an "important function." I'm not sure what it is. nt

[Overseas]

6. To bribe our politicians? a.k.a. support their reelection campaigns. //nt

[Festivito]

11. Exactly. So we don't have to pay for elections.

Directly. We just pay higher premiums or we pay with our chronic infirmities and early deaths or all of the above. Lucky US.

[notadmblnd]

7. Anthem Blue Cross sends profit to WellPoint

Even as the health insurance giant turns over hundreds of millions in profits to its parent company, it defends plans to raise rates for Californians whose care last year exceeded premiums paid.
INSURANCE
February 23, 2010|By Lisa Girion

Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said it was raising rates on thousands of individual policyholders in California because the cost of their medical care exceeded the premiums they paid last year.

At the same time, other parts of Anthem reaped a profit. A Times analysis of the company's regulatory filings shows that $525 million in Anthem's earnings in 2009 was shipped to its corporate parent WellPoint Inc. The analysis' findings were not disputed by Anthem.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/23/business/la-fi-anthem-cash23-2010feb23

[TatonkaJames]

8. Why we need them ?

We don't, as most of you know. They are just a medical billing company like our general practitioners who use individuals to do their billing for them.
The only problem with doing away with the health industry, as with any large industry is, how do you find jobs for the millions who would be out of work
if we abolished any of these large corporations ? In my opinion, this is the driving force behind why we don't do any of the LOGICAL moves with these companies, that and the fact our representatives would lose a lot of cash they squirrel away in offshore accounts.

[Dr.Phool]

9. If it weren't for insurance companies,

You'd probably squander your money on things like food for your kids, and stuff like that.

[mbperrin]

10. There's that, too.

PLUS, they keep our idle hours busy by just hoping they might really pay a claim.