Since the Affordable Care Act’s passage, the top five health insurers’ annual profits have jumped 230 percent, with much of that going to #UnitedHealthcare

America’s largest health insurers have raked in more than $371 billion in profits since the passage of the #aca.

More than 40 percent of that net income went to UnitedHealth Group, whose annual profits skyrocketed by nearly 400 percent while the company denied nearly one in three medical claims from its policyholders.

Insurers garnered these profits as the average American families’ premiums have risen to nearly $26,000 a year. In all, since the ACA was passed in 2010, more than $9 trillion of revenue has flowed to the country’s largest health insurance companies.

#eattherich #MakeGuillotinesGreatAgain #uhc #uspol #healthcare

Y’all, let’s talk about American healthcare and Wall Street. Yes, insurance executives are monsters, but...the wolves of Wall Street are their masters: their relentless profit demands, their growing entanglement in the health care sector is a large factor in our pain.

The ACA required health plans to spend at least 80% to 85% of premiums insurers take in on enrollees’ care, known as the medical loss ratio. But insurers figured out if they also become health care providers — by buying physician practices, clinics, and pharmacy benefit managers — they can meet that threshold by paying themselves and avoiding payment for their customers’ care.

Hundreds of acquisitions later, UnitedHealth is now the fourth largest U.S. company — just behind Walmart, Amazon, and Apple. And traded companies care more about shareholders than patients.

statnews.com/2024/12/11/wall-s…

#uhc #unitedhealthcare #cigna #wallstreet #MakeGuillotinesGreatAgain #KillHedgeFunds

Don’t overlook Wall Street’s role in health insurance greed | STAT

As the former VP of corporate communications at Cigna, I used to protect the health insurance business. Today's public conversation is missing something.

^{Wendell Potter (STAT)}