Obamacare problem - government needs to do the job that the private sector won't.

Robert Reich
7.19.2016

If you want to know what’s happening to health insurance in America, take a hard look at UnitedHealth – the nation’s largest insurer. It's making humongous profits. Its second-quarter earnings jumped 11 percent. Over the past its revenue grew 28 percent to $46.49 billion. So far this year, the value of its stock has soared 20 percent – more than triple the 6 percent average increase of the rest of the stock market.

Where’s all this money coming from? You -- when you pay for health insurance, and/or when you pay your taxes for health insurance programs UnitedHealth offers. (It’s a major provider of Medicare Advantage, for example.)

But here’s the thing. UnitedHealth is losing money in the small slice of its business offering insurance to lower-income Americans (and people with pre-existing conditions) under the Affordable Care Act. So it's cutting back. Instead of selling Affordable Care Act coverage under the Act in 34 states, as it did this year, it will be selling coverage in just 3 states next year.

Corporations are designed to make money for their shareholders (and CEOs) -- which often means getting as big as possible so they dominate markets, while cutting back on social responsibilities that may make small dents in the bottom line. That's the way the system works. Which is why we need a single-payer system.

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