Senate Bill Could Hurt Insurers At Least Initially

[Bicoastal]

Source: Yahoo (AP)

By TOM MURPHY, AP Business Writer Tom Murphy, Ap Business Writer – Fri Dec 25, 11:50 am ET

INDIANAPOLIS – Health insurers get some big presents in the Senate's health overhaul bill — about 20 million new customers and no competition from a new government plan.

Taking advantage of those boons might take some time, though.

The bill imposes hefty new taxes and coverage rules that will pinch insurers by forcing them to cover more sick people without gaining enough healthy, lower-cost customers, industry insiders say. The industry is also worried the bill doesn't do enough to control health care costs.

(snip)

The Senate bill also calls for the industry to pay annual fees for the plan that start at $2 billion in 2011 and increase to $10 billion by 2017. Analysts say costs like these will be passed to consumers because insurers want to protect profit margins, which are generally thinner than other health care companies like drugmakers.

"I think we're going to be discussing health care reform continuously for the next several years as we try to fix all the things that are broken with this existing bill," Fluegel said.

Added up, insurers say the bill would mean higher premiums for consumers and likely for employers who buy coverage. And that's on top of hikes spurred by rising medical care.

The stock market no longer seems worried. Shares of the five largest managed care companies have risen more than 120 percent, on average, since they bottomed out in early March. In contrast, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased about 63 percent over the same span.

Investors had big worries when the debate picked up steam last spring, but stocks started climbing as they realized "doomsday scenarios" such as a government takeover would not happen, Funtleyder said.

He thinks insurers will learn to live with the overhaul and eventually benefit from it. They should be able to adjust their prices to accommodate taxes, fees and the new regulations once they understand the claims their exchange customers will generate.

"It's kind of tricky, at least in the beginning."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_overhaul_insurers

---

...

[ixion]

1. so the 'hurt' is that they can't swallow the money fast enough...

poor babies. :nopity:

[Hydra]

2. Man, they get a handout the size of Texas

And it's not enough.

[TheWatcher]

3. And so the Orwellian Propaganda begins.

Somehow I think this is going to hurt We The People a lot more than it hurts the Oligarchs.

But, hey, they can probably do anything they want to us now.

Because we'll just drool and say it's a "win".

America The Asylum.

[PSPS]

4. "without gaining enough healthy, lower-cost customers"

The bill imposes hefty new taxes and coverage rules that will pinch insurers by forcing them to cover more sick people without gaining enough healthy, lower-cost customers, industry insiders say. The industry is also worried the bill doesn't do enough to control health care costs.

I thought the mandate was supposed to "fix" this.

It's true that, for insurance to work, you have to have the largest risk pool possible. The larger the risk pool, the lower the cost. A universal system is ideal, of course. But since congress operates on bribery (aka "campaign contributions") openly these days, they were charged with crafting a system that would launder more money into the pockets of the insurance CEO's and, indirectly, to themselves.

So if those least likely to buy their own insurance (young, healthy) and compelled to "buy" it using either their own money or mine (through taxpayer subsidy,) this doesn't make sense.

[No Elephants]

9. "For insurance to work, you have to have the largest risk pool possible" Not so.

Insurance works all the time without the "largest possible risk pool."

What is true: the larger and more diverse the risk pool, the more profitable insurance companies become. We are making an already profitable industry much richer at the expense of both the American taxpayer and the American consumer.

What the insurers seem to be whining about: The mandate does not kick in fast enough for them.

[endless october]

5. um, it's not going to hurt insurers.

they might have trouble finding enough space to put all of the money, but i'm sure they'll manage.

[New Dawn]

6. Only because they will be tired after running back and forth to the bank.

With all of the money that they will steal from us, thanks to their fascist Mandate.

[Wardoc]

7. Kind of like how I can "hurt myself" at an all you can eat buffet!

[Donnachaidh]

8. just enough visible *hurt* to keep the cheerleaders humming and the lemmings

tossing themselves off a cliff with gusto.

Change -- I can hear it now, falling into the pockets of the corporocrats in Washington.

[No Elephants]

10. What TheWatcher said in Reply #3.

[Odin2005]

11. Yeah right. BULLSHIT.

[Hansel]

12. I'm still waiting for a law to stop them from being publicly traded.

That's the hurt I want to see.

The idea that they are taking money from people who believe they are paying to have their health care needs meant and are then in turn making it a bigger priority to use that money to pad the bank accounts of their executives and stock holders is criminal.

They need to be forced off the stock market to help them get their priorities straight.

[Thickasabrick]

13. Beware....the Insurers will be fighting for much stiffer penalties. nt