News, Health Insurance Mergers Make Executives Richer, Policyholders Poorer (Humana, Cigna, government)

[JD59]

If regulators approve the recently announced mega-deals in which Aetna, Inc. would buy Humana Inc. and Anthem Inc. would buy Cigna Corp., will consumers benefit? Or will the winners be limited primarily to the executives and shareholders of the companies involved?

Health Insurance Mergers Make Executives Richer, Policyholders Poorer*|*Wendell Potter

[Rabrrita]

I bet many do not realize that THEY ARE shareholders in those companies and benefit when those stock prices rise. Almost every 401K invest in the health insurance industry and many mutual funds are heavy into health care because they pay so well. I know its fashionable for people to moan and groan over profits shareholders of insurance companies make, but they need to realize they are really looking into a mirror when they complain!

[Qwerty]

I'm going to bet that at least one of those mergers doesn't happen in the end, but we will see.

I think the biggest thing missed with the ACA was not requiring health insurance companies to be not-for-profit, but they didn't ask me . In states that require health insurance companies to be not for profit, the overall premiums are consistently the lowest in the country.

Either way, people seem to forget that these are still businesses and they SHOULD be making money, not to mention the huge reserves they are required to maintain, which is a good thing. I would be every single person that is against insurance companies would balk if their neighbors or co-workers told them that they made too much money and that they should have to give them some of their earnings to make it "fair"....

[texdav]

It was bound to happen; have you seen the ACA .Its a huge volume of regulation. The cheapest way to operate is to merge because its added a lot of regulations. Even government that created it does not fully understand it which causes a lot of confusion. but then any time you deal with government you often get several different answer f rom different officals; so nothing new there. Look at most government programs and you see they farm out the control because they do not have the experience to do the work. Thebiggest mistake and it was intentional was not creating a nation program with across state sells making a more competitive market place for consumers.