The Outrageous Profits Of Insurance Companies

The Democrats have demonized the insurance industry as evil corporations that have skyrocketing profits at the expense of the people. These are some of the claims made by the left:

“I’m very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers'”obscene profits.”

“Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed.” Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.

“Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe.” A MoveOn.org ad. My Way News

The unfortunate thing for the Democrats is that the profits of the insurance industry are not that high. According to the article, entities such as Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo all have higher profits than the insurance industry which sits at around 2%.

The insurance companies cannot be gouging people in order to make record profits if their profits are anything but record and are eclipsed by many other entities. The left has to claim that the insurance companies are raking people over the coals and making record profits in order to push its agenda of taking over our health care system. If profits are not the reason for high medical costs then there must be something else and whatever it is, it will not be cured with government running the health insurance.

The left did this with the oil companies. They parroted the record profits made by the oil companies but discussed it in raw dollars. In reality, the profit margin was about 10%, reasonable for a business. During that period of time Microsoft had profits greater than 20% but we did not hear much about the cost of MS software and how the company was exploiting people. Instead, we heard the Democrats harp about the billions in profits made by oil companies as those very Democrats discussed how they would “take” the money and redistribute it to the people. Very Hugo Chavez of them.

Insurance companies are in business to provide a service and to make money. They make money but not too terribly much considering they rank 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries.

There are 34 industries ahead of the insurance industry so perhaps the government should be going after them and their “obscene” profits. Obviously, the profits of those industries must be obscene if they are better than the insurance industry that the government has already pronounced as obscene.

The Democrats are using the Alinsky playbook in order to marginalize the “enemy” and turn everyone against insurance companies.

Seems to me the insurance industry is not so bad after all.

Now, I wonder what the profit margin of the tort lawyers was during that time.

Anyone want to bet they did better than the insurance industry?

Big Dog

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6 Responses to “The Outrageous Profits Of Insurance Companies”

  1. Blake says:

    With insurance companies, as with other companies, they have to make a profit- otherwise, its a damn expensive hobby, and they are in the business of risk.
    Take, for example, this hurricane season- no damage to speak of- certainly not on the level of Katrina or Rita, or even Ike. And yet these companies have to act like the next great tragedy is just around the corner, because it is- and despite their exemptions, they still pay out a lot of money after one of these events- and they lose money doing so.
    It is a risk- two or three years of bad things, and they might not survive. A hurricane or two, and earthquake in Cal., and a devastating flood in the midwest, and they are hurting.
    So they build up their reserves and pray for calm weather and following seas, because they know- history shows us, that another tragedy is just around the corner, and often come in clusters. And the libs want to take the insurance “windfall” profits for themselves?
    They are hoarding their profits, because they know they will have to part with them when another catastrophe strikes.
    To take this buffer of money from insurance companies will ensure that they do not survive a cataclysmic event.
    Then what are the people to do, with no money at all to rebuild?
    Sometimes, you do not mess with the system, because to do so is irresponsible to everyone else,
    Such is the case here.

  2. Barbara says:

    The dems will say anything to get their government plan through and it looks like that is going to happen. It looks like they have the 60 votes. I have Medicare and Carefirst BC/BS and I had just BC/BS until I retired. My premiums never went up that much. In fact it was not more than a few cents. BC/BS picks up my Medicare deductible and all my co-pays as well as the balance after Medicare pays. Why in the world would I want to get rid of this and have the government plan? However, this is probably what O’Malley will do to the state employees since he keeps spending money and now doesn’t have any .

  3. Mr Pink Eyes says:

    I like your comparison to the oil companies, it is right on the mark. The government makes more off of a gallon of gas than the oil companies do yet it is the oil companies that take the public relations hit. This is no different, it is class warfare. Pitting one group of Americans against another. This is how we unite a country?

    • Blake says:

      No, that is just how liberals think- they have to have an enemy, because they are ideologically bankrupt- and if they have no ideas, they need something to focus people’s attention away from their failings.
      Plus, if they have an enemy, the people will vote themselves bread and circuses everytime-
      Just demonize big business- it works really well with dumb people.

  4. […] here at Big Dog’s Weblog is an article about Nancy Pelosi attacking the profits of insurance […]

  5. Blake says:

    In Forbes, the health insurance industry had an overall profit margin of 2.2%, ranked 23rd behind almost every techie company- so I have to wonder where the “obscene” profits are coming into play here.
    Gee, it seems like some libbies are playing the “demonization” game again- they are so bad-
    So who’s next to be demonized?
    I suppose the Coal industry, or energy companies- but certainly not the “compassionate, I can feel your pain” Liberal communist- whoops- didn’t mean to call it like it is, how absolutely gauche of me- liberal, really, really liberal (to the point of being Marxist) democrats.
    Oh no- they can not be blamed for a “pre-existing “condition” “- they are as innocent as newborn babes, or is it “killed near- term fetuses”?
    I can never learn to talk lib.
    Darn.