Health insurers want you to keep smoking,
Harvard doctors say

From: Scientific American
By Brendan Borrell in 60 Second Science Blog

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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.”

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. I wonder why? If it's going to cost them money, who's going to save money? Think about it.

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.

It's pretty simple, really. They're corporations. They aren't on your side. Don't listen to them.

Big business is the real government of the U.S.

Since before the Transcontinental Railroad.

He who has the gold still makes the rules.

Cináed made it on DU with this one.

Eideard is so kind! Sometimes he even gives me credit for things I just casually mention in conversations.

As to what the DU Resident Dumbo Brainless Republicans did with it after he posted it, that wasn't kind at all! Bunch of morans!

Those idiots even do that with Caption this Photo.

It has always been baffling to me how some wealthier Americans can be so utterly uncaring about other, less wealthy Americans.

I once had a boss who told me I should be careful, never to get to the point where my attitude was, "Fuck you, Jack! I'm alright!".

Is that what America's really all about? Fuck you, I'm alright? If so, I've been grossly misinformed my entire life.

The Republican attitude has turned really ugly in the last eight years or so.

I thought the repugnican attitude of recent years was pretty much "Life begins at conception ... and ends at birth."

That health insurance companies are investing in tobacco doesn't surprise me a bit. The kindest way to look at it would be to see it as a hedge fund on their part. If tobacco sales go up, they have to pay out on insurance, but will have the stocks making money for them so that they can afford to do it.

If you believe that interpretation, I have a wonderful deal for you ... cash only ... and in small unmarked bills.

More likely, the greedy bastards are simply greedy bastards as advertised. They want to make money by any means, no matter who gets hurt ... and no matter who is not covered when they get sick. Remember, in our denial of health care industry, the job of every health insurance company is to deny you health care. It's their legal obligation to their shareholders.

They're extremely competent at their jobs, no?

They'd probably face a law suit from their shareholders if they tried a different business model. And the shareholders would likely win the suit.