Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better - drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.
The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.
HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.
The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.
UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.
So when Nancy Pelosi talsk about "immoral profits being made by the insurance industry" and calls them "obscene", she is lying through her teeth to generate hate among the American people against health insurance companies.
When Democratic Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen states that the insurance industry's profits have "skyrocketed", someone needs to ask him to show them the figures he is looking at instead of allowing him to pull statements like that out of thin air.
Just a FYI.
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