Health and life insurance companies in the US and abroad have nearly $4.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks, according to Harvard doctors.
It’s the combined taxidermist and veterinarian approach: either way you get your dog back,” says David Himmelstein, an internist at the Harvard Medical School and co-author of a letter published in this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The largest tobacco investor on the list, the 160-year old Prudential company with branches in the US and the UK, has more than $1.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks. The runner-up was Toronto-based Sun Life Financial, which apparently holds over $1 billion in Philip Morris (Altria) and other tobacco stocks. In total, seven companies that sell life, health, disability, or long-term care insurance, have major holdings in tobacco stock.
Why is it a big deal? “If you own a billion dollars [of tobacco stock], then you don’t want to see it go down,” says Himmelstein, “You are less likely to join anti-tobacco coalitions, endorse anti-tobacco legislation, basically, anything most health companies would want to participate in.”
But with $4.5 billion still invested in Big Tobacco, many insurers are reaping profits from a cancer-causing industry. As Himmelstein puts it, “Is this who we want running our healthcare system?”
Well Surprise, Surprise! Citizens of the United States might want to keep this sort of thing in mind when evaluating the upcoming debate on universal health care. These are the exact same “conservative thinkers” who are dead set against Obama’s push toward universal health care.
One of these days, Americans are going to wake up and start smelling the coffee. These jerks, spending hundreds of millions of your very own health dollars to convince you adequate health care coverage is some sort of Communist plot, actually do have an unbelievably large financial incentive to keep you sick and paying ridiculous amounts of greenbacks to get well.
Thanks, Cinaed
63,
Oh…. how about no more foreign wars for multinationals? That should save you a cool 7 trillion dollars…
They probably invest in McDonalds, Frito Lay, and Ben and Jerrys as well.
#63,
Just tell me how we are going to pay for it.
How do we pay for health insurance today? Mostly through employers. That same amount of money, minus the huge administration fees and waste, could pay to insure everyone.
Then, doctors could do what they do best, treat their patients instead of sit on hold while some low level insurance idiot makes a medical decision.
#66, minus the huge administration fees and waste
The government can do nothing more efficiently than private industry.
Yahoo search for “swiss health system” at the NYT Web site has an article from 2007.
I have to retract everything I said about ’em. The Swiss require everyone to get their own health insurance. That would never work here. You can’t make insurance companies do anything, like provide ME coverage. Never gonna happen. That’s why I’m partyin’ like it’s 2009.
#67, Loser,
The government can do nothing more efficiently than private industry.
Written with typical right wing nut bias. Maybe you could check out the efficiency of Medicare and the VA to private insurance. Yes, there are problems with these programs after eight years of trying to screw them up. Yet they still use far less of their budgets on administration cats than do typical private insurance companies.
Typically, Canada spends about 9% of GDP on health care while the US spends over 14%. Canadians far and away would not want to trade their system, warts and all, for the American system.
# 58 Named said, “You forgot to include the various tax breaks they get which make it a tax haven for many, oh, Americans?”
So? Citizens in Switzerland pay for their own health ins…. I agree, we should do as they do. Thanks Named.
I read some statistics a while back where the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, known as OHIP, spends less than 1% on overhead and administration. American insurance companies spend anywhere from 25 to 35 % of their gross receipts on administration.
I’m not wasting time trying to find those statistics when it is a given you wouldn’t look at them anyway.
#66 Mr Fusion: Thank you for your confidence in the medical professionals who are as tired of this mess as everyone else. But your post suggests a very imprtant point: “That same amount of money, minus the huge administration fees and waste, could pay to insure everyone.”
We can safely assume that the various health insurance schemes spend the first 20 or 30% on their overhead. How much higher do you suppose it will climb when an entire federal bureaucracy is administering it?
#69, Yeah, that’s a common misconception and one I can’t blame you for believing. Altruists refuse to believe the nanny state can do anything inefficiently.
And I, too, could show study after study showing the inefficiencies. But, alas, you wouldn’t read them.
70, Paddy-O,
You still waiting to take that logic course in High-School when you leave your moms basement?
“The social health insurance guarantees medical treatment in case of illness or accidents, if not covered by the accident insurance.
There exist 94 different insurers (“health insurances”), which are not allowed to strive for profit. In case one of the insurers becomes insolvent, the costs of governmental services will be covered by the so-called common institution.
The insurers are not only responsible for the refund of services, but they also support the health aid together with the cantons (are the common leaders of the Swiss foundation for health aid).
Every person with domicile in Switzerland has to be insured (every person staying in Switzerland has to become insured within 3 months). You can individually organize that. The insured party can also choose freely his/her health insurer. Every health insurance is compulsorily obliged to admit every applicant, who has his/her domicile in the area of activity of the health insurance, for the basic insurance.”
So, there is NON-PROFIT private insurance companies in Switzerland providing insurance to everyone with no exception, all backed by the government.
Yep, that sounds exactly like the US system!
70 Paddy-O,
I forgot to add “idiot!”
jcj7161-get rid of the whore you live with
i don’t know what to do! my husband is a snake and wants to F everything in sight! i stalk people i don’t know because my life is over. please help me stop this addiction!?