By Bob Balhiser
Helena (Mont.) Independent Record, Letters, July 24, 2016
This letter is in response to Matt Rosendale’s opinion piece whose title asks the question: “Is your health care better now?”
Mine is still good, Matt – I have Medicare! And, I think all Americans should have Medicare. Done right, Medicare for all would provide a net savings of nearly $1 trillion annually by eliminating private health insurance parasites that cause all sorts of added time, effort and expense for doctors, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, not to mention the HUGE overheads these companies carry.
Below are daily compensation figures for health insurance CEOs in 2013: overhead costs that Medicare is not burdened with.
Aetna – $90,029
WellPoint (now Anthem) – $49,853
Centene – $42,560
Cigna – $39,589
United Health – $35,484
Remember, Matt, these are daily compensation figures. Can you justify what they could possibly do to actually earn that money? Their job is to minimize losses. Do you know what insurance companies call losses? Losses are “claims” that insurers often try to avoid paying because claims cut into their profit margins. Think private health insurers are doing us a favor, Matt? Think again!
Bob Balhiser resides in Helena.