Health insurers are seen to have made huge profits in 2011

According to reports of last week, the nation's biggest health insurers are experiencing huge profits for third year in row. As per experts, this is due to the inflationary mindset of the people in the nation. They have been postponing most of their medical care. Such a situation in the insurance industry is a good thing for the insurers and the companies.

Health insurers making huge profits through Health Insurance

Though there was seen some signs of economic recovery, the doctors and the other insurers are of the opinion that majority of the people are still now largely budget-conscious, thereby signalling maybe a fundamental change in the want and need of the people for different health care.

Most of the doctors are of the opinion that the patients are more interested in knowing the details of the costs of the health insurance rather than getting insurance policy at the first place. But, it is still seen that the insurance companies even now are pressing for high premiums. Most of the insurers are still agreeing to the increase in the double digit increase in the rate that they generally charge. They are of the opinion that this increase will be able to help them in any sudden rise in the demand for health care when the people can have improvements in their money reserve.

The UnitedHealth Group, which is considered to be the largest commercial insurers, have said to the analysts that till this year, the insured hospital have actually stayed decreased in some instances. Cigna, another very well known insurer, while reporting about its earnings; have also talked about the lowered usage of medical care.

Any kind of significant increases in actually how much the people will be required to pay for their medical care may also prevent any solid rebound. Moreover, in the recent years, most of the employers have actually greatly reduced the health benefits. But on the other hand, they have been raising the deductibles and also the co-payments so that the people are required to reach deeper into the pockets.

In the year 2010, almost about 10% of the people who were covered by the employers had actually deductibles of at least $2,000, in comparison to simply 5% of the covered workers in the year 2008.

Some of the market watchers however wonder if the insurers are simply raising the premiums much in advance of the health care law that is going to be introduced in the year 2014. The recent huge profits of the insurers as per the reports given by the big insurance companies, shows that the first-quarter earnings have broken the analysts expectations by almost an average of 30%. This may make it difficult for anyone and equally for the politicians and also the industry executives to even argue that the health insurance industry has been hurt by the federal health care law.