While ordinary Americans are struggling with inflation, medical workers are exhausted from the pandemic, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have died of COVID, Anthem was raking in $38 billion, and most of the money came from taspayers. Only 27% of the revenue came from employers and individuals. United Healthcare has an even more dramatic story. All their profit increase over the last 10 years came from Medicare and Medicaid.
Employers and individuals pay much more in premiums and out-of-pocket than the government programs pay. The profit margin on these people is 10.5% and on the government programs it is only 3.3%. Private payers an making a much larger contribution to Anthem’s profits. As a result of these high costs, employer-based insurance is crumbling rapidly.
“Anthem’s executives were so pleased with the company’s first-quarter profits that they told investors they expect to make more money this year than they previously expected.
Wall Street seems to love what Anthem is doing, even though more and more of its customers are becoming functionally uninsured because they can’t afford their out-of-pocket requirements.
On March 31, 2012, you could have bought a share of Anthem stock for $63.38. At the end of the first quarter of this year, a share would have cost you $491.22. And when the stock market closed today, that share would have been worth $516.74 –an increase of $25.52 a share in less than a month.
Bottom line: Anthem’s investors are getting richer as more and more Anthem customers file for bankruptcy or beg for money on GoFundMe to cover their out-of-pockets.”
Americans pay twice as much for health care compared with other developed countries and they live longer. Our system of healthcare financing does not serve the people well. Healthcare professionals can come together now to make care for chronic illnesses more affordable for all.
The middleman gets away with the grand theft auto!