More Outrageous Health Insurance Factoids

UPDATED October 5, 2009 During the very noisy and often fact free debate over healthcare reform, lets remind ourselves who is one of the villains of the debate and why they are spending millions a day lobbying congress against reform and the public option.

• Health Insurance companies have made $60 Billion, yes billion, in profits the last 8 years.
• Health Insurance Premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages in the last 8 years.
• CEO's of the ten largest insurers made an average of $8.5 million in pay last year - about $4,100 per hour.
• CEO of Cigna's Edward Hanway will retire with a $73 million golden parachute this fall.
• Health care firms boosted their lobbying efforts in the second quarter of this year by $133 million, becoming the largest industry spender on lobbying. And Karen Ignagni, the chief lobbyist for the health insurance trade association, made $1.65 million in 2007.
• WellPoint's affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee it a profit margin in the midst of a painful recession. As if Mainers didn't have enough to worry about just struggling to put food on the table, WellPoint is intent on forcing them to cough up 18.5% higher premiums on their insurance policies.
• We began wars and spent more than $1 trillion when nearly 3,000 people were killed on 9/11. Yet about the same number of Americans die from our failed insurance system every three weeks.

Isn't it time for non-profit health insurance?

What do you think? Can you add some of your favorite factoids?

Click for Robert Creamer's Huffpost, "Why Health Insurance Reform Will Pass This Fall -- It's the High Political Ground."

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