A Case For Universal Health Care

If ever a case were made for universal health care in the United States, the greedy health insurance companies and their overpaid executives have made the case well. This morning I awoke to a story on the news regarding a recent lawsuit settlement involving United Health Group and their practice of underpaying insurance claims. Then, I looked up a few other headlines associated with this company. Here are the headlines I found associated with United Health Group on the New York Times website only:

A Rip-Off by Health Insurers?

The Middleman's Markup

Insurer Says Economy Has Dented Its Prospects

UnitedHealth Settles Options Suit and Lowers Outlook

UnitedHealth Beats Wall St. Expectations

Ex-UnitedHealth Chief Settles Case

Big Health Insurer Agrees to Update Its Fee Data

Now, a little disclaimer… These aren’t all the articles on the page there were 10 articles on the first page, so it’s not like I had to try very hard to find the bad news regarding this company’s practices.

Take a look at those titles. Does it strike you as odd that an insurance company is making so much money? Let’s review what an insurance company is supposed to be. We, the little guy, pay a monthly premium to our insurance company for which they hold for later possible payouts. Now, I’m aware that the insurance company doesn’t need to hold all the money in reserves for claim payout, but should there really be such an excess in premiums versus the money paid for claims that insurance companies are able to post record profits. That can only mean that either a) we are being over charged for premiums, or b) we are being underpaid for our health care claims… or perhaps both!

It’s time for the people of the United States to stand up and stop allowing these companies to literally kick us when we are down! It’s time to take the power away from private companies over our health, and put the power into the public’s hands… our government, the government that is by the people, for the people.