Update on soulless bastards

Surgeon General’s Warning: Take your blood pressure pills before you read this.

We frequently hear in the press that the reason health insurance premiums keep going up, up, up, up is that the cost of health care keeps going up, up, up, up.

True, but not as true as the insurance companies would have us believe. Between patients last week I was thumbing through a recent copy of The New England Journal of Medicine. Well, actually, I was reading it on my Kindle, so I guess I wasn’t thumbing so much as clicking… but I digress.

This from an article by Ann Mills: “Over the past decade, the largest health insurance companies have seen a disproportionate increase in profits of 250%, or 10 times the rate of inflation. During the past year alone, there has been a double-digit increase in health insurance premiums.”

So even though health care costs are going up, up, up, up the insurance industry has found a way to not simply maintain their profits, but to more than double them.

Nice.

Black Beard the pirate would be proud.

The same day I read in Time magazine that a Kaiser Family Foundation report shows that over the last decade the average annual premium for family policies increased 114% each year. That means it doubles every year, folks. At the same time, the report shows the deductibles have increased to $1,000 for over a quarter of insured workers.

So that means:

1) Every year we pay twice as much.
2) Every year the insurance companies make more money.

And, from personal experience I can give you two more nuggets:

1) Every year less is covered (meds, gear, procedures).
2) Every year your doctor gets paid less.

Revolution in the street, anyone?