If anyone really wants to know why healthcare costs have escalated, you only have to look at the insurance carriers. Instead of using their revenue for healthcare and lowering premiums/deductibles with any savings realized, they simply pad their own pockets and those of their share-holders. Granted, as publicly traded companies, they have a fiduciary responsibility to increase shareholder value MORE than providing payment for care. hence, they deny care of make it very difficult to access. The ONLY solution would be for congress to mandate that ALL health insurance companies become MUTUAL companies and return profits back to shareholders in the form of a dividend OR become purely non-for-profit, again distributing excess back to policy-holders. Do not hold your breath but cost of healthcare will never improve until the insurance industry has changed.
The five largest U.S. health insurers — Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group — saw a range of financial results throughout the first three quarters of 2016.
1. Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna’s operating revenue increased about 4 percent year over year to $15.7 billion in the first quarter of 2016. The increase in revenue reflected higher premium yields and membership growth in Aetna’s government business. However, Aetna’s operating earnings dropped about 4 percent during the same period to $810.8 million due to lower operating earnings in Aetna’s group insurance segment. The insurer’s net income also dropped 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.
Aetna’s total revenue grew 5 percent year over year to $16 billion in the second quarter of 2016. The insurer boosted its operating income year over year by 8 percent in the second quarter to $783 million. Citing $430 million in losses on its individual plans since January 2014, Aetna announced in its second-quarter earnings release that it was withdrawing from plans to expand its offerings on the 2017 ACA insurance exchanges. Aetna’s net income for the second quarter of 2016 was $790.8 million compared with a net income of $731.8 million in the same period of 2015.
Aetna reported revenue increased 6 percent year over year to a total of $15.8 billion in the third quarter of 2016. The payer attributed its increase in revenue to higher healthcare premium yields and growth in its government business membership. However, Aetna is projecting a loss of about $350 million on ACA plans this year. For the first three quarters of this year, Aetna reported net income of $2.1 billion.
2. Indianapolis-based Anthem reported operating revenue… TO READ MORE CLICK HERE:
