Because a certain set of “rights” needs to be protected — at all costs:
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Health insurers watch profits soar as they dump small business customers
Commentary: record stock prices reward investors but leave mom-and-pop firms in the cold
by Wendell Potter Commentary, publicintegrity.org -- Jan 26, 2015
[...]
And let’s be clear, these insurers aren’t suffering. UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer, reported last week that it made $10.3 billion in profits in 2014 on revenues of $130.5 billion. Both profits and revenues grew seven percent from 2013
.
United impressed Wall Street so much that investors pushed its share price to an all-time high. When the New York Stock Exchange closed last Thursday, United’s share price stood at $113.85, a record. [...]
That certainly happened last week. Every one of the big six saw their shares reach or come close to reaching historic highs. Although they haven’t done quite as well as United, the other five have seen the price of their stock more than double or triple. Health Net’s share price has increased 224 percent since March 2010. Anthem’s is up 238 percent over the same time period. Aetna’s 290 percent. Cigna’s 305 percent. And Humana’s 309 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans enrolled in health plans offered by small employers continued the steady decline that started years before Obamacare went into effect. [...]
And that’s the right of mega-merger corporations, to profit off of our human condition, by deciding when and what — and in the case of small business plans — exactly who will be covered.
Cha-Ching!
With profit margins like that — who the heck needs national Wellness goals?
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OUTLOOK 2016: Growth of ACA Marketplaces, Viability of Plans Top Issues
From Health Insurance Report, bna.com -- January 15, 2016
[...]
Mergers and Acquisitions
Strumpf lists mergers and acquisitions as one of the top issues in the health insurance industry in 2016.
“The five largest insurers have a national market share of at least 83 percent,” he said. If the proposed mergers are approved between Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. and between Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc., the remaining three companies, including UnitedHealth Group Inc., would have a market share “approaching 85 percent,” he said.
Local market concentration has been above Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recommendations for competitive markets since 2012, Strumpf said.
“Approval of the proposed mergers will consolidate commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollment into a handful of plans who will have significant leverage over providers,” he said. [...]
So much for that quaint Public Option idea that would have at least given us "an increase in competition and keep insurance companies honest..." accord to consumer health advocate, Wendell Potter. Just imagine how THAT socialist idea — would have cut into to those “guaranteed revenue streams” — that ‘shall be protected always, and forever more’.
Because we dare not imagine it, any other way, according to a corporately-preferred democratic Candidate.
Nevermind the fact that since the ACA went into effect:
“that one out of three people who were previously uninsured have gained health care coverage."
Which begs the question: What about those other 2 out of three people, who haven’t?
……
No worries, they DO have other desperate Non-corporate Options, if they’re lucky, that is:
…...
22 States Are Not Expanding Medicaid. Here's What That Means for Their Residents:
whitehouse.gov -- June 4, 2015
Nearly half of states are so locked into the politics of Obamacare that they're willing to leave nearly 4.3 million of their own people uninsured.
‘Ask not was your mega-merger corporations can do for you,
Ask what more you can give up for them, and their bottom-lines.’
We’re number one! … in “Health Care spending per Capita”.
And we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 24th! … in Life expectancy,
among modernized, developed countries.
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Woo hoo! Hellvua job corporate lobbyists. What a deal!
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When the ever-protected, unchecked, untouchable profit-motive is the illness,
Can a country, ever, ever, find a cure?
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That is the question, being posed to us all.