Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits

[ensho]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/04/aetna-forcing-600000-plus_n_380130.html


Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.

In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. The insurance giant predicted that the company would subsequently lose between 300,000 and 350,000 members next year from its national account as well as another 300,000 from smaller group accounts.

"The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering," said chairman and CEO Ron Williams. "We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year."

Aetna's decision to downsize the number of clients in favor of higher premiums is, as one industry analyst told American Medical News, a "pretty candid" admission. It also reflects the major concerns offered by health care reform proponents and supporters of a public option for insurance coverage, who insist that the private health insurance industry is too consumed with the bottom line. A government-run plan would operate solely off its members' premiums.

Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.
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insurance barons are such swell fellows

[Hawkeye-X]

1. This is why the insurance companies' anti-trust exemption must be revoked

and fined 100x their profits to make it not worth it.

Fuck the profits, people first!

Ban the insurance groups - support single payer!

[L0oniX]

2. This is only the begining. They are all going to raise premiums before the health care bill...

gets passed. I've already heard of premiums doubling.

[GCP]

3. It's obscene

And what's even more obscene is that the corporatocrasy which runs the major TV networks will never cover this in their 'news' programs.

[cyclezealot]

4. Double digit premium increases have been and will be a fact.

Unless they are strictly regulated... As they are in Switzerland.. Such regulation possible in the US.. Doubtful...They could not regulate Wall Street and we think they will the Insurance industry.. Right.

[izquierdista]

5. "repositioning"

"Wiggling our toes so that our foot is further up your ass."

[metapunditedgy]

6. Did you notice it's not even "to turn a profit" but to "meet profit *expectations*".

I.e., they want to make MORE money, so the execs can loot it, and people are just an obstacle.

[jtrockville]

7. And we plan to force people to participate in their SCAMS....

or pay fines.

[Randypiper]

8. Reid blisters “callous health insurance industry” video

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/002389/