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Times: 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising

Times: 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising

Times: 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising

by CAROL M. OSTROM / The Seattle Times

KING5.com

Posted on February 9, 2012 at 12:58 PM

Most publicly traded companies sitting on a pile of cash face a lot of sharp questions from shareholders, often accompanied by demands to fork it over as dividends.

Nonprofit health-insurance companies in Washington don't have shareholders. But they are facing demands for the $2.4 billion they've amassed while handing steep rate hikes to customers.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is again asking lawmakers to give him the power to consider a nonprofit health insurer's surplus before he agrees to any rate increase.

Read more at The Seattle Times

Copyright: The Seattle Times

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Comments: Displaying 1 - 4 of 4

WaterGirl said on February 9, 2012 at 3:35 PM

This article does not give enough information to make any informed judgements. I used to be an actuary at a non-profit health insurance company and know how the money goes. Insurance companies are required to keep a considerable amount of capital by the state. The article does not say how much of this $2.4 billion is apart of that. The article also does not mention how much of the $2.4 billion is to make up the losses incurred in this economic downturn. Insurance companies get a bad rap. Their profit margin is about 3%. The last few years some insurance companies had a negative profit margin. Pick on the pharmaceutical and durable medical equipment companies that have outrageous profit margins. I agree that the health industry is broken. It is going to take a cooperative effort by everyone involved: Medical providers, pharmceutical companies, health insurance and most of all the people who use the medical services and are spending the dollars.

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terpmom said on February 9, 2012 at 2:10 PM

Get Jesse!

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zaxxon7469 said on February 9, 2012 at 2:07 PM

Isn't 2.4B just a months worh of Exobinatly high premiums. I pay over $630 a month just to have my wife and daughter on my company plan. What gets me, I have never paid that much combined for my auto and auto insurance. That half my mortgage. More than I pay for Groceries. I still have to pay $1500 a person deducable before they mostly cover things.Just qiuck math here:630 250 my company pays for me. $880x12=10,560 a year. then I pay $4500 for my family deductable. $15,060 a year. My out of pocket does not stop there. I'm still making co pays, and % payments for Medications and visites, and procedures. 15,060,000,000,000. 15.06 Trillion dollars roughly going off my premiumes, is what the insuance idustry makes a year. 2.4B just a drop in the bucket.

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davebrownspoint said on February 9, 2012 at 1:51 PM

Since we don't have single-payer, $2.4B can get taken from us & locked up by the process. Health insurance is so messed up, Remember the CEO who paid himself a billion dollars a year (amassed from incoming insurance premiums). That's the health care insurance situation here in the good old USA.

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