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ehanneken
Ehanneken bookmarked on 2009-11-03 health insurance business profit politics

Of course, established health insurers do enjoy some protection from competition, thanks mostly to state governments.

  • Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
  • Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.

This link has been bookmarked by 5 people . It was first bookmarked on 25 Oct 2009, by JimC Rast.

  • 03 Nov 09
    ehanneken
    Eric Hanneken

    Of course, established health insurers do enjoy some protection from competition, thanks mostly to state governments.

    health insurance business profit politics

    • Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.
    • Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
  • 27 Oct 09
    mkshill
    mkshill hill

    General

  • 26 Oct 09
    wlblakeshaw
    wlblakeshaw
    • The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.

    • But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?


      Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.


      The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.

  • jgrig2
    Joseph Grigoletti
    • Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry. In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."
  • 25 Oct 09
    romatrast
    JimC Rast

    health insurers profits

    • Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.