Recent comments

Since it sounds like you worked for Cigna, one would suspect that you know how health insurance works, but a reminder sounds in order. Everyone pools money to pay for the costs of care, admin expenses and potentially a profit depending on the company. These ratios have tended to be constant. Generally insurance companies profits are not multiplying exponentially. People point to WellPoint costs doubling last year without noting that the main reason for the increase was that WP sold a business that accounted for 50% of profits. If profits aren't expanding, what's driving rate increases? If you look at medical loss ratios over past few years for insurers, these have actually been inching up. If premiums are going up every year, but ratios are same, costs must be increasing. Costs are increasing because of utilization, demographics, and runaway Rx use. The amusing thing if you closely read the insurers financial statements you'd realize that insurance companies know that the private insurance market is dying a slow death if there is no change. They want healthcare reform as much as everyone else (although not a public option). We could argue about what is a reasonable MLR, I wouldn't be opposed to a high one. I would just like to see incentives around care aligned to encourage good care and discourage overuse and misuse. Giving someone something for free is not going to accomplish this. I know I'm probably wasting my breath on all this. You also realize that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska is a non-profit entity don't you (even if execs might be doing pretty well, not unlike many Drs and Hospitals)? Many other non-profit plans (BCBS MI) are also hiking insurance rates - so profit is not the issue (even if it is AN issue). If someone in CA. is not happy with Anthem's rate hike, they could switch to Blue Shield of CA which is a non-profit or switch to a lower cost product (some of which had rate decreases). But that person would likely not see much of a difference with Blue Shield in rates for the same benefits since the cost is almost entirely based on how WE all over-utilize or mis-use care. Blaming the insurance companies is easy - coming up with true solutions is the challenge. I favor about 75% of the President's recent plan, but feel that he like all the others in Congress either can't or won't focus on the details and unintended consequences of the other 25% I have a problem with (even CBO won't score because it doesn't have enough details). One example - closing the donut hole on Medicare Rx. Why close it for everyone - it acts as a break on consumption and it should be means tested for those who can't afford, not for every person. My mother-in-law can certainly afford the $1500 per year in question. Other points: WellPoint is a for-profit entity, but since when did making a profit become a crime in America? When we're ready to eliminate profits for doctors, hospitals, grocers, home builders, (or anyone who provides an essential service and makes money beyond what they need to live on) maybe then it would make sense to discuss (circa 1935 USSR). Meet you at the gulag.... You're right on the point that costs for investor day functions can tend to be obscene - true for almost all publicly-traded companies, but eliminating this is not going to fix healthcare, so focusing on this gives the masses a little red meat, but does everyone a dis-service. I've worked with big companies, small ones, non-profits and government - the bigger the worse has been my experience and all waste more money than I care to think about.