Just days after a Commonwealth Fund report showed that American families are sending health insurance companies more and more of their income every year even as their deductibles skyrocket, the country’s biggest insurer reported massive 2021 profits and told investors to expect even higher profits in 2022. UnitedHealth on Wednesday...
Part of the planning process before entering into a military engagement is called “shaping the battlefield.” It’s a strategic maneuver that aims to create a warfighting environment in which your strengths are optimized and your weaknesses are mitigated. With the election of Joe Biden as President, it...
Where you live — and the overall health of the economy there — is a factor in how recession impacts you. This map reveals how your state has improved (or not) over the last six years or so. Click through the map labels at top to see each of...
Health insurance industry executives knew from the beginning that their strategy of moving as many Americans as possible into high-deductible health plans would lead to financial ruin and even early death for millions. But they didn’t care. They cared more about implementing a strategy that gave them greater assurance...
The coveted treat was quietly delivered by lawmakers who had long sought oil extraction in wildlife refuge.
As a former health insurance exec who quit the business, let me tell you: No one will be more excited about the new COVID-19 package than my old friends in the corporate insurance industry. It would funnel $48 billion of taxpayer money to them,...
When you want to know if the US government, or the political party in charge, is pulling a fast one on the public, look at the name they give a new program or law. The USA PATRIOT Act is a classic example. An acronym for Uniting and...
Seventy-five percent of Democrats support “Medicare for all.” But the American health care industry appears to have pushed Democratic leaders away from backing House candidates who would support universal public health insurance. This backhanded approach occurs as key lobbies for the industry have united in opposition to single-payer with...
As of January 1 of this year, under the UN Charter, nuclear weapons have been declared illegal — both their possession and their use, putting them in the same status as chemical and biological weapons, but because none of the 86 signatory nations have nukes, and because...
Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward speaks with Susan Dentzer of the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy at the America's Health Insurance Plans' annual institute and expo in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 20. As another presidential election cycle shifts into high gear, the nation's largest special interest organizations will...
Tarbell is highlighting the government fines and penalties businesses pay when they engage in fraudulent or criminal behavior. Often, these fines are just a small part of the firms’ annual revenue and don’t actually serve as a deterrent. To these companies, it’s just the cost of doing business. For Facebook,...
Most experts predict the next recession will hit America in 2020. Are you ready?
The pharmaceutical industry has reinforced its clout on Capitol Hill with campaign contributions that heavily support incumbents in both parties. That figure came to a total of $62.7 million during the 2016 election cycle, according to the OpenSecrets database. The largest drug companies lean, in particular, toward the members of...
The Darkest Money In Washington: Business Groups Spend More On Advocacy And Consulting Than Lobbying
The $140 billion the New York Times says Americans owe in medical debt is just the tip of the iceberg. The number doesn’t even include the billions we are putting on our credit cards to pay for health care because of insurance deductibles we can’t...
Republican lawmakers took care of friends, including President Trump and other wealthy property owners and developers
As millions of Americans celebrated President Biden’s inauguration, some of my former colleagues in the health insurance industry were quietly celebrating some news of their own: their most profitable year ever. That’s right: insurance companies made a fortune during a pandemic.
“Carried interest” provision puts billions into the pockets of Wall Street’s wealthiest players.
As companies fill the research void at the federal level, the incentives are stronger than ever to manipulate data and methodology, say critics.
There’s been a lot of talk this week about big corporations such as Amazon, Verizon and Comcast deciding to stop giving money to House and Senate Republicans who voted to overturn last year’s election. Guess which giants aren't on that list? America's big for-profit health insurers.