The New York Times has reported that Anthem, the big health insurance company that operates Blue Cross, has offered to purchase Cigna for $47 Billion. Another competitor, Humana, is also looking for a buyer.
What would that same $47 Billion mean if it was spent on health CARE instead of buying out another firm? There are fewer and fewer choices out there now for health coverage, and further mergers will mean reduced options for us all. Consumers are hit with higher and higher copays and deductibles, along with increasing numbers of plan exclusions on desperately needed medications and treatments.
Insurance companies play God, deciding who and what they will cover and it can change at anytime. These health care "providers" choose profits over coverage, investor dividends over policyholders, and executives' golden parachutes over medication formularies. Unlike every other developed nation in the world, health care in the U.S. is still not a human right, but a mere benefit for those fortunate enough to have access to life-saving and improved quality-of-life treatments. Our American obsession with capitalism over any real form of socialized medicine is costing us dearly.
For-profit health care? It's an oxymoron.