Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff
I'm trying to wise up 300 million people about money & finance
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INVESTING | 10/01/2013 @ 3:33PM |10,908 views
ObamaCare Enriches Only The Health Insurance Giants and Their Shareholders

So far in 2013 the value of the S& P health insurance index has gained 43%. Thats more than double the gains made in the broad stock market index, the S & P 500. The shares of CIGNA are up 63%, Wellpoint 47% and United Healthcare 28%. And if you go back to the early 2010 passage of ObamaCare, you will find that Obama’s sellout of the public interest has allowed the public companies the ability to raise their premiums, especially on small business, dramatically multiply their profits and send the value of their common stocks up by 200%-300%. This is bloody scandalous and should be a cause for concern even as the Republican opponents of the bill threaten the close-down of the government.

We warned you back on December4, 2009 in my blog ” The Horrendous Truth About Health Care Reform” that the Obama White House was handing a “ free ride for the health insurance industry” that would allow premium hikes of 8%-10% a year by CIGNA, Humana HUM -1.6%, Aetna AET -1.16%, UnitedHealth Group UNH -0.84% and Wellpoint, and as well a $500 billion taxpayer subsidy, a half trillion dollars without any requirement that the health insurers had to spend the subsidy on medical care. Several US Senators including Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia spoke to me openly of the outrageous sellout being foisted on the nation’s uninsured citizens.

At the time I wrote, Goldman Sachs research operation estimated that the 5 giants would increase profits by 10% a year from 2010 to 2019, sending their shares up an average of 59%. In truth, the shares of CIGNA and some others are up a multiple of several times since the contest was resolved by a very tight vote in early 2010. One startling reason for this amazing performance was that Obama took off the table “proposals to significantly reduce health care costs” as the giveaway in getting the bill through, according to Ron Susskind’s best-selling book ,”Confidence Men,” which I wrote about in a blog on September 24, 2011. ( “Obama’s Incoherent Policy-Making”) Some 3 years later, UnitedHealthCare Group(UNH) was rewarded by being added to the elite list of the Dow 30 industrials.

I understood belatedly that there would have been no Affordable Care Act of 2010 if the White House had not given into demands from the giant profit-making health insurance companies. Had he not done so, I am being assured that there would have been no bill passed, a priority goal that Obama promised in his 2008 Presidential campaign. How the profits have risen so impressively requires further investigation as the bill is meant to limit the profits earned to 20% of the revenues.

One of the other downsides to the supposed reform bill was the surprisingly unfair treatment of small business owners who faced even larger potential premiums for their employees. It has been the fear of these higher health costs that has resulted in the overwhelming trend toward hiring part-time employees whom the employers need not offer healthcare insurance.

So much for the reforms embedded in the mis-labeled Affordable Care Act of 2010. It may not die a bloody demise this month, but it is certain to be reformed itself, let’s hope for the benefit of the 300 million, not just the millions of lucky shareholders who may have understood the ramification of ObamaCare, which was to multiply the profits of five giant insurance companies, just as the major bank oligopoly was rewarded by the federal bailouts and Fed monetary policy.

How the profits have risen so impressively requires further investigation as the bill is meant to limit the profits earned to 20% of the revenues.

wrong. more anti-obama propaganda. funny how the far left and far right are basically the same. "here i am stuck in the middle with you"

getfiscal posted:

How the profits have risen so impressively requires further investigation as the bill is meant to limit the profits earned to 20% of the revenues.

wrong. more anti-obama propaganda. funny how the far left and far right are basically the same. "here i am stuck in the middle with you"

is that really wrong? im going to PM willa and get back to you.

ilmdge posted:

the surprisingly unfair treatment of small business owners

TG posted:

obamacare was a masterpiece of accelerationism, the internal contradictions of private healthcare are becoming apparent to all and sundry

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?ref=politics&_r=3&pagewanted=all&

In the fight to shape public opinion, conservatives face well-organized liberal foes. Enroll America, a nonprofit group allied with the Obama White House, is waging a campaign to persuade millions of the uninsured to buy coverage. The law’s supporters are also getting huge assistance from the insurance industry, which is expected to spend $1 billion on advertising to help sell its plans on the exchanges.

casual mention