Quoted from joebxr

When is the last time you had anything more than a cleaning at the Dentist?
Neighbor had a bridge done last week, one tooth bridged to 2 others...$2,600.00
His Medicare Advantage Plan covered  approx. 58%. Without health insurance he would have paid
full boat...his entire contribution to Medicare and Advantage plan is less than $2k annually.

So you claim same is true for car insurance (don't buy insurance, just pay out of pocket if needed)
...obviously you have no clue what car repairs cost
these days...and you definitely don't understand what a law suit against you in a car accident would cost....
I'll give you a hint....without auto insurance you would be DESTROYED!

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Analysis of Insurance Industry Investment Portfolio Asset Mixes

The asset mix of an insurance company’s investment portfolio varies over time based on different influences, including both macroeconomic and industry-specific factors.  The general state of the global economy, industry trends, market and political events also impact investment management decisions. Similar to other industries, an adjustment to risk appetite tends to also result in an adjustment to investment strategies and philosophies. In a strong economy, risk appetite tends to increase and the converse is true during poor economic conditions.

The NAIC Capital Markets Bureau studied the insurance industry’s portfolio mix across the five general insurance company types (life, property/casualty, fraternal, health and title) as of year-end 2010, year-end 2008 and year-end 2005. Depending on the insurer type, portfolio compositions could vary, due mostly to appropriately matching assets to liabilities and taking into consideration relative duration and liquidity risk. For example, life companies have longer-term liabilities than property/casualty companies; therefore, the former invests more heavily in longer-term assets, such as bonds with 30-year maturities, than the other industries.

Consistently in each of the three analyzed years, bonds represented the majority of insurance industry investments, ranging between 68% and 71% of total cash and invested assets. And, within the bond sector, the largest type across all three years was corporate bonds, ranging between approximately 43% and 48% of total bond investments. Investment across other asset types tended to vary.

This report discusses our findings relative to asset mixes, a breakdown of the bond sector and a further breakdown of the bond exposure as of year-end 2010 into sectors/industries. In addition, we show the asset mix and bond sector breakdown as of year-end 2008 and year-end 2005.

Year-End 2010 Investment Portfolios: Economic Distress Continues

As of year-end 2010, the U.S. economy seemed to be on a path to recovery; however, over the past few months, this has become uncertain.  There is continued distress within the financial markets, particularly banks, as well as ongoing concerns about residential and commercial real estate, which appears to be worsening modestly. As a result, current market sentiment indicates a “flight to quality”; that is, a conscious move to safer, less-volatile and shorter duration investments.

At the same time, the insurance industry invests with certain overall strategies in mind, such as matching assets to liabilities in terms of maturity and interest rate risk, including managing duration; liquidity requirements; and overall risk appetite/volatility tolerance. Combined with the investment strategies that each insurance company has documented in their statement of investment policy and guidelines, they also take into consideration macroeconomic trends and fundamental credit analysis in determining their investment portfolio composition.

Chart 1
As the table above shows, as of year-end 2010, the majority of insurance industry investments were in bonds (69.7% of total cash and invested assets) followed by investments in common stock (10.3%). Bonds also were the largest component of investment portfolios across each of the five insurance company types.  Bonds include categories such as corporate debt, municipal bonds, structured securities, U.S. government bonds and foreign government bonds. In addition, as of year-end 2010, more detailed information was available regarding insurance company investments’ book adjusted carrying value (BACV) of securities lending collateral and derivatives exposure, both of which were less than 1% of total cash and invested assets for the entire industry. Note that the market typically refers to notional values, and not BACV, when referring to derivatives.

Life companies accounted for the majority of industry cash and invested assets in terms of BACV, at 65% of total cash and invested assets as of year-end 2010. Property/casualty companies represented the second-largest, at 30.1% of total cash and invested assets. Because life companies hold the largest amount of industry invested cash and assets, we analyzed the investment portfolios’ asset type breakdown by life company size using the most recent data available (July 2011). As the table below shows, corporate bonds are, consistently and by far, the largest asset type regardless of company size. And, bonds in aggregate (that is, corporate bonds, structured securities and U.S. government bonds) represent at least 80% of invested assets across all life company sizes.

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The Bottom Line
In general, health insurers are non-cyclical, recession-resistant companies because they provide a necessary service. That said, these companies can feel the pinch of a rising unemployment rate, as their member growth will slow. In addition, during economic downturns, insured companies will try to reign in expenses, including healthcare, by increasing copays or deductibles for members or reducing medical services covered under the plan, resulting in a lower utilization by members and potentially lower medical costs for the insurer, but also lower premiums paid by the companies insured. As a result, investors need to track pricing and premium levels, medical costs and member growth over time, as well as the regulatory noise related to covered charges through the government health programs.

Quoted from senders

we almost always buy the flat screen tv and put off going to the dentist until it is a BIGGER problem when we finally do go....

but don't worry....national health'care' is here to compel you to 'do what is right in the eyes of god government'.....

Quoted from CICERO

Americans run up trillions in consumer debt, then box tries blame ME for not wanting to insure them because they can't manage their priorities .  People go bankrupt because they go in debt to buy luxuries, and cry when they go bankrupt when they need that money for necessities like health care.

Americans that support Universal Health Insurance want me to insure the guy that buys McDonalds on a credit card charging. 19% interest and $50 late charges.

Quoted from Madam X

That claim about bankruptcy and medical costs is inaccurate, as well. As far as "saving", going to the dentist, you pay for insurance every month whether you use it or not. Also, why should somebody else pay for more insurance than they want or need so somebody else can go to the doctor or dentist? I'm not talking about major medical costs, that's a separate issue, and some people who think they are making out by buying insurance are going to have a rude awakening when they find out what a deductible is. The government has taken away policies from people who took care of themselves at a price they felt they could afford, and is making them pay more so their neighbor doesn't have to go into his own pocket to go to the doctor? Except he still will, of course, as he will still have a co-pay and that can go up and up.
Anyhow, this thing is collapsing, as it should, because people who didn't think it was going to affect them are finding out just how bad they were snookered. Pay for your own damn doctor visits. If it costs too much to go to the hospital, shouldn't we find out why, before we make everybody pay too much?

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Consumers are staying connected. The vast majority (90.4%) of U.S. TV households pay for a TV subscription (cable, telephone company or satellite), while roughly three-quarters (75.3%) opt for broadband Internet. That’s a lot, and the percentage of homes has remained stable despite a poor economy and a multitude of entertainment options available to consumers. In fact, since last year, the number of homes paying for both a TV subscription and broadband has increased 5.5 percent.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Yes, another ObamaCare Success!

Brian Sheppard, 58, a self-employed Southern California attorney, says he spent
five to seven hours on the website before determining that he could upgrade from the
existing Kaiser plan covering him and his wife for an additional $100 a month,
but with lower deductibles and prescription costs. He's still waiting to hear
whether he'll be eligible for a subsidy that would slash his expenses significantly.
"In 2010, when people were being canceled because they got sick, there was
all this outrage," he observes. "People have forgotten that."

LA Times

Quoted from Box A Rox

"In 2010, when people were being canceled because they got sick, there was
all this outrage," he observes. "People have forgotten that."

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A House oversight subcommittee took a close look at a particularly shameful practice known as “rescission,” in which insurance companies cancel coverage for some sick policyholders rather than pay an expensive claim. The companies contend that rescissions are rare. But Congressional investigators found that three big insurers canceled about 20,000 individual policies over a five-year period — allowing them to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims.

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'Non-partisan’ group paid $1 million to produce positive Obamacare stories

With the roll out of Obamacare being as disastrous as possible for the Obama administration, one group was given a $1 million grant to help lead a rebranding effort with hopes of salvaging the law in the eyes of the American people.

Families USA (FUSA) — an organization that describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans” — was given a $1.1 million grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on October 4, 2013, to gather “success stories” of Americans dealing with Obamacare and distribute them to the media who often refer to them as an “independent” group. This is part of a greater upcoming effort to bolster the perception of the lowly health care law.

“The purpose is to bridge the information gap for people who can significantly benefit from the Affordable Care Act,” Ron Pollack, the Co-founder and Executive Director of Families USA, told TIME on October 25, 2013.

However, the organization is a far cry from “non-partisan” and is extremely close to the Obama Administration and Enroll America – the group leading the efforts to sign people up for Obamacare.

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Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low in Ohio

The botched rollout of Barack Obama's signature health care law continues to take a political toll on the president. The latest evidence is a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday morning showing the president's approval rating hitting a record low of 34 percent in Ohio. Obama's disapproval rating has jumped to an all-time high of 61 percent. This represents a significant decline from Quinnipiac's last poll in Ohio on June 26, when Obama recorded a 40 percent approval rating and a 57 percent disapproval rating.

Quoted from CICERO

So for 4000 cancelled policies per year over a 5 year period, the media and government propaganda distorted this information to make it look like an epidemic.  Then they demonize the $300 million insurance companies saved over the 5 years, which is LESS than the Federal Government spent on developing a website that doesn't even work.

People are upset is because THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THEIR PRIVATE INSURANCE AND NEVER HAD THEIR COVERAGE DROPPED.

Quoted from joebxr

You'd be crying a whole different story if you were one of those 20,000!
You'd be blasting the incompetence of the Government for not protecting
and looking out for the people!