Thursday, October 08, 2009

Pelosi Out of Her Mind on "Windfall" Profits Tax on Insurers

I think she is just so spaced out with CIA agents lying to her and San Fransisco Democratic councilmen coming to kill her friends that she doesn't know what she is saying half the time. This has to be the most laughable thing I have read in a long time.

Pelosi told reporters the idea of a new tax on insurers was “very preliminary” and that she asked Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel to determine if “that is something we can put in the mix” of revenue-raising ideas.

Insurance companies and other health-care industries such as drugmakers have “much more they can put on the table to bring down the cost,” said Pelosi, of California.

This guy is 100% right when it comes to "windfall profits."

“What windfall profits? The insurance industry profits are in line or less than almost any other industry,” Robert Zirkelbach of the Washington-based trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said in an telephone interview. “There is a lot of misinformation out there about” profits of health plans. “Historically, health-plan profits have been 3 percent, much less than other industries.”

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest insurer by sales, had a 3.8 percent profit margin last year. For WellPoint, it was 4.1 percent and Aetna Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut, the third- largest insurer, 4.5 percent, according to Bloomberg data.

Compare that to the 30% or more margins that software companies make and you can see which companies are getting "windfall profits." Plus UNH paid $1.6 billion in taxes last year. How much more should they be paying above and beyond other US companies solely because they sell health insurance? Also how much should a non profit health insurance company like Blue Cross and Blue Shield have to pay? I mean they dominate the market in many states.

The funniest part about this whole thing is that UNH will not be paying any "windfall profit tax" out of their pretty scant profit margin. They will simply raise their premiums citing Congressional pressure. Nancy Pelosi does not understand that taxing companies for "windfall profits" just make them pass on those taxes to consumers. That would be the exact opposite of the House goal of reducing premiums for all Americans. I think she just might be the worst Speaker of the House in modern history.

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