Nov 11 2009
The characterization of the health insurance industry as high-profit is "a little mystifying" and "rather silly" given that their profit margins are thin compared to other industries, according to analysts interviewed by
ABC News.
"Insurance companies are not money trees. They (go) out into the market and buy health care services and resell those services at some markup at health care consumers. I would argue that markup is not that much," one analyst said. ABC reports, "the profit margins the health insurance companies report — often below 5 percent — pace some industries and lag behind many others" (Gomstyn, 11/10).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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