Reply #30: I work for a health insurance company

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We administer TRICARE, which is a "government run" health care program for veterans. We also administer Medicare. We are a not-for-profit. Last year the entire company received a 0% raise. Our CEO makes several 100 thousand a year, and no huge bonuses.

These programs have been administered by private insurance companies from day 1. We have contracts which stipulate the amount of profit we can make, and they are iron-clad, or you lose the contract. We go through very scrutinizing auditing by the federal government - if you screw up you will lose your contract.

Just telling the truth about this controversy - there isn't one. I pray every day that we receive one of the "Public Option" contracts!

On edit: There is something very misleading or outright false about this statement:

"Health insurance companies typically earn profits of around two to four percent, which amounts to billions of dollars for some firms."

That is the total overhead, not the "profit". Out of that money we have to pay for our employees (we have about 4000), with 500 being the IS department (we have a huge IBM mainframe and have huge infrastructure costs). We actually make very little "profit". Our main objective is to keep the company afloat, not ripping of Joe taxpayer.