Obama says health insurance companies are “making record profits, right now.”
Not so fast, Barack.
According to Fortune:
Health insurance companies – as a group — rank #35 in return-on-sales at a measly 2.2% …
,,, and they rank #31 on return-on-assets at 11.1%
Actually, that was last year. This year, profits are are down 50%.
I guess you can’t let the facts get in the way of a good rallying cry.
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Source article:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/23/barack-obama/health-insurance-company-turned-profit-not-rec/
Fortune data:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/performers/industries/profits/
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The Homa Files 
August 12, 2009 at 1:20 am |
The big insurance companies are excited about health care reform. The stock market is pushing these stocks up which supports the thesis that health care insurers will do just fine under Obamacare. If Obamacare was likely to hurt these firms, the stock market would punish them.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_33/b4143034820260.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5
P.S. Have you noticed the quality of reporting in Business Week sucks? Check out this interview with famous value investor Van Den Berg in Outstanding Investor Digest on page 16 where he talks about using Business Weeks as a counter indicator for investment purposes.
Click to access CenturyMgmtExcerpt2006.pdf
August 12, 2009 at 1:22 am |
See: The Health Insurers Have Already Won
How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_33/b4143034820260.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5