Insurers try to blame rising rates on rising medical costs - but obviously some of the blame must be placed on their rising profits.
from bizjournals.com:
Profits for the nation's health maintenance organizations increased a healthy 10.7 percent last year ...
The results, from Weiss Ratings follow a more than 80 percent increase for the HMO industry in 2003.
The story hilites some particular "success" stories:
Humana Medical: 167.8% earnings increase in 2004
Highmark: 1,720.6% earnings increase in 2004
Blue Cross of California: 43.3% earnings increase in 2004
Blue Cross of Oregorn: 158.1% earnings increase in 2004
Capiral Advantage Insurance Co.: 137.9% earnings increase in 2004
The connection of this to premiums is in the extended entry
Updated 8/9: removed totally fuzzy attempt to connect all premium increase to insurance profits, after being soundly corrected in the comments. The comments are still there, and provide some really good information about low insurance company margins, which I didn't realize. Thanks for keeping me on my toes - d