Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

New Business for Insurers, Pt.2 – Lukewarm days ahead, cooler days behind.

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The researchers for the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. report predict a slight growth in health-insurance industry revenues. With this better balance, there will be some ‘tjghtening of the belt’ for some CEOs (could be healthy, too), as profit margins are expecting a slight decline. These measures were based by comparison of the Obama health-insurance/care plan to either the status quo or Mr. McCain’s health-insurance/care plan, should it have been implemented.

Watching intently as the picture unfolds is the multi-trillion dollar health insurance industry itself. They are not passive by any stretch but have been staying their hand to embrace what, even they admit, has to be fixed – our nation’s broken health insurance/care system.

Certainly the Cigna Corp. is one of the players. It is ranked as the fourth-largest health insurer in our country, based on the number of its members. Cigna Corp’s chief executive, H. Edward Hanway concurs with these findings stating that the industry expects to see more business, modest margins and increased regulation. But when the time comes, he assures us that the industry will become more active in the reform process. As he phrases it: "We're very focused on being an active voice at the table and talking about what kind of reform makes sense."

Throughout the long presidential campaigns, the health insurance industry has been put in the spotlight. Views of the current crisis continued to suggest that the health insurance industry was part of the problem. The impending reform proposals for complete overhaul caused investor concerns to the point that the industry’s stock prices suffered almost across the board.

Continued…
November News...