What, you might ask yourself, would cause a health insurance company coming off a quarter where it had multi-billion dollar profits to slam individual policyholders with rate increases up to 39%?
Well, let's see.
Maybe the insurer is headquartered on Mars and is unaware that a debate to reform the health care system has been raging in the United States for the past year. And maybe this insurer was unaware that this debate has witnessed health insurers taking more than their share of abuse.
Or maybe the insurer is headquartered in the U.S. but is in need of a gigantic corporate hearing aid to assist in overcoming a massive condition of tone deafness.
Or maybe the insurer is just plain arrogant and doesn't give a hoot about how this plays out in the larger world.
OK, maybe it's none of these. Maybe there were good reasons for the move and let's concede them all. So, concede the point that those billions in profit were largely a one-shot deal arising from a sale of a business.
And concede that the state's regulations and the recession were causing the insurer to lose money on its individual business. And concede that medical costs are skyrocketing, leaving premiums breathless to catch up in many cases.
