Since insurance companies undertook extensive lobbying efforts
against healthcare reform -- spending millions in an attempt to derail the
legislation while it was still going through Congress, and allegedly instructing
their own employees to launch letter-writing campaigns in protest -- they've
actually been doing quite well since it passed.
Profits are up at some of the nation's largest insurers, including
Aetna, WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group, according to an analysis by Bloomberg
Government. That's the opposite of what the insurers themselves predicted would
happen, and comes about mainly a result of the companies taking on more business
through Medicare and Medicaid. Huffington Post
The fight over healthcare reform, which ended when President Obama
signed the legislation into law in March 2010, was one of the most prolonged and
contentious political battles in recent memory. Huffington Post
Conservatives mounted a fierce opposition to the reform effort, aided
by a $380 million lobbying campaign on behalf of the healthcare industry.
Huffington Post Insurers claimed that the new system would lead to skyrocketing
coverage costs for all Americans, while politicians favoring reform countered
that the insurance companies were merely worried about their own bottom lines.
All Topics The recent earnings of five of the country's largest insurers --
WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Humana and Cigna -- and finds that their
profit margins have climbed to an average of 8.24 percent in the year and a half
since the healthcare reform package was signed into law.
Bloomberg By contrast, in the 18-month period before healthcare was passed,
profit margins at these five insurers averaged just 6.88 percent. All
Topics A number of provisions in the law are scheduled to take effect in
future months and years, while conservative politicians, including Republican
presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, have threatened to roll back the reforms
entirely. Huffington Post
ARA/DB
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