Health Coverage Declines But Companies’ Profits Soar
The number of working-age Americans who get their health care coverage through work dropped for the ninth year in a row in 2009, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The main reason, says the report, is the lousy economy and an unemployment rate that jumped from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 9.3 in 2009.
The latest figures show that employment-based health insurance fell from 61.9 percent of workers in 2008 to 58.9 percent in 2009. Says Elise Gould, Director of Health Policy Research at EPI and author of the report:
The current recession and its negative impact on access to health care highlight how dependent Americans are on a healthy labor market for all facets of economic security.
The report points out that the new health care reform law will make it easier and more affordable for Americans to secure and maintain health insurance coverage. But the “continued poor labor market will likely lead to”
further losses in insurance coverage before this major relief takes effect in 2014.
Click here for the full report.
The lousy economy hasn’t had much of an impact on six of the nation’s biggest private health insurance companies which saw their profits increase by 22 percent over last year in the quarter that ended in September, according to a new analysis by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN). Read the rest of this entry »
Health Insurers Mull Secret Donor Election Front Group
Yesterday, we reported that the nation’s biggest health insurers are “sparing no expense to weaken” the new health care reform law by lobbying the state regulators who are writing new regulations to ensure consumers’ premium dollars are spent on real medical care.
Today, a new report from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) reveals the same insurance giants are discussing forming a $20 million, “nonprofit” front group to influence regulations, sway voters and back industry-friendly candidates.
The companies, according to CPI, are Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., Humana Inc., United HealthCare Inc. and WellPoint Inc. Sources told CPI they:
expect millions of dollars will be pumped into issue advertising in a number of races where candidates sympathetic to health industry concerns have a shot at winning….Overall, the insurers are expected to focus on swaying about two dozen close House contests, says one source.
