Health Insurance Debate, er, Smear Campaign

Health insurers' 'obscene' profits smaller than Hershey's

This was the title on an Associated Press story in the paper this morning. I am not going to bother looking for it since my previous experience with AP tells me I won't find it. They have their copyright rules. This story was on page 2 and not on the front page since The Oregonian puts up a PDF of their front page every day. Can't go putting AP copyright stuff on-line. Anyway it got me steamed, so I wrote a letter to the editor:

Hoo boy! You have really done it this time. What a load of hogwash. Who paid you to print this garbage? And to do it under the banner of "FactCheck | Your Report Card On Accountability" is unconscionable.

Since you seem to think your readers are very stupid, I will explain it to you as though you were very stupid. You are comparing apples to oranges. All of the companies that you are comparing the health insurance companies against all make things. Making things is difficult. You need buildings, equipment, staff and inventory. Your profits have some relation to how much stuff you actually produce.

Insurance companies do not make things. They are essentially glorified bookkeepers. They have no inventory, they have no equipment. Their goal should be to minimize the the amount they charge for administering their health insurance plans. And your article is only talking about their profits. It makes no mention of their expenses. How much are they charging to process claims? And where are the executive bonuses getting counted? Under expenses, or under profits?

How would you feel if your tax accountant was basing his fee on the amount of taxes you paid? You paid $10,000 in taxes last year, my fee is $1,000. $500 for my actual time spent working on this, and $500 for my profit. Or maybe grocery store clerks should be paid this way. You bought $100 worth of groceries, your checkout fee is $10, $5 for my time, and $5 for my profit.

Go back to school, and take the Associated Press with you.