Posted on 09/20/2009 8:21:02 AM PDT by eartotheground
The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable.
Executives from UnitedHealth certainly showed no signs of worry when Senate Democrats proposed to help pay for reform with a new tax on the insurance industry. Instead, UnitedHealth parked a shiny 18-wheeler outfitted with high-tech medical gear near the Capitol and invited members of Congress aboard. Inside the mobile diagnostic center, Representative Jim Matheson didn't disguise his wonderment. "Fascinating, fascinating," said the Democrat from Utah. Impressing fiscally conservative Democrats like Matheson, a leader of the House of Representatives' Blue Dog Coalition, is at the heart of UnitedHealth's strategy. It boils down to ensuring that whatever overhaul Congress passes this year will help rather than hurt huge insurance companies.
...insurance companies have quietly focused on what they see as their central challenge: shaping the views of moderate Democrats.
The industry has already accomplished its main goal of at least curbing, and maybe blocking altogether, any new publicly administered insurance program that could grab market share from the corporations that dominate the business. UnitedHealth has also achieved a secondary aim of constraining the new benefits that will become available to tens of millions of people who are currently uninsured. That will make the new customers more lucrative to the industry.
Matheson, whose Blue Dogs command 52 votes in the House, can't offer enough praise for UnitedHealth, the largest company of its kind. "The tried and true message of their advocacy," he says, "is making sure the information they provide is accurate and considered."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Maybe they've already worked out a deal where United will provide "0bamacare Advantage" selling worthless policies at a huge profit. The "Doctor Nurse" will see you at half the cost of your family doc. I don't know. But in order to figure out what is going on in DC now, we really need to examine this. Anything that involves United + 0bama has to be a cesspool.
You do not hear any complaints from the Insurance Companies. No complaints from La Raza. No complaints from Planned Parenthood. Hmmm...Logic dictates???
Whey they start talking about racism (arguing against the president) and that the insurance companies won (giving no credit to the tea party groups) then you know the RATS and Libs are on the ropes.
What’s a “racist”? That’s a conservative who’s winning the debate :)
There are few, if any, profits to be had in health insurance. Insurance companies do not make a profit selling health insurance.
Most employer groups, associations are self funded or self insured anyway, and the insurance companies provide claims adjudication services only. Most insurance companies selling health insurance either went broke or got out of the business of selling health insurance.
Insurance companies make a profit selling life insurance products, disability insurance. You can count on two hands the number of companies selling group health insurance today.
And when liberals start jumping off employer groups into the public option (frying pan), insurance companies will be forced to terminate group policies for failing to maintain underwriting standards (100% enrollment).
Do you believe the insurance companies will stay in business insuring the old, the sick, while the young and healthy run off to public option?
“William W. McGuire, cultivated a corporate profile as an industry insurgent little concerned with goings-on in the capital. From its Minnetonka (Minn.) headquarters, the company grew swiftly by acquisition. McGuire absorbed both rival carriers and companies that analyze data and write software. Diversification turned UnitedHealth into the largest U.S. health insurer in terms of revenue. In 2008 it reported operating profit of $5.3 billion on revenue of $81.2 billion. It employs more than 75,000 people.
In 2006, McGuire lost his job after getting caught up in the manipulation, or “backdating,” of company stock options. UnitedHealth was forced to restate earnings over a 12-year period to reflect the extra compensation it had granted McGuire and other executives. McGuire’s chief lieutenant, Stephen Hemsley, took over as CEO in December 2006. Two independent inquiries concluded that Hemsley wasn’t involved with the backdating. Nevertheless he forfeited $190 million in past stock compensation and unrealized gains to resolve the matter.
Hemsley, a former chief financial officer of the now-defunct Arthur Andersen accounting firm, generally shuns the spotlight. But when health reform became a central issue in the runup to the last Presidential election, company executives say they realized UnitedHealth needed to go on the offensive. Hemsley met with White House officials on May 15 and May 22 to promote his company’s prescription for cutting federal health spending.
In August 2007, the company hired Sommer, who previously headed global lobbying for Goldman Sachs (GS). He quickly built a new Washington team of former congressional aides and other K Street operatives. One key acquisition: Cory Alexander, former chief of staff for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), an influential moderate Democrat. Alexander had been lobbying for the huge mortgage financier Fannie Mae (FNM). Today, Sommer directs a team of nearly 50 people from UnitedHealth’s spacious Washington office on Pennsylvania Avenue, equidistant between the Capitol and White House. The company spent more than $3.4 million on in-house and outside lobbying in the first half of 2009.”
You were saying?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.