UnitedHealth has 147 million customers, according to google. 20 billion / 147 million = $136

So they're making $136 dollars per customer in profit. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. 136 is much less than the crazy costs that people are complaining about.

Are people who like to quote these big numbers just not capable of critical thinking or is it just that they like the chance to rage at capitalism's supposed failings and they know their readers are too dumb to do division?

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burnt-resistor 4 days ago | parent [-]

Hard to say what a life is worth, which is part of the problem of for-profit healthcare.

Their most recent quarterly call had their CEO apologize for providing too much care.

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GoatInGrey 4 days ago | parent [-]

I don't think you're making contact with what the other commenter is saying. Explaining that a health insurer makes a little over $100 in profit per person over the course of a year is meant to disprove the argument that removing profit from the health insurance system is all it will take to make everything affordable. Philosophical arguments around the economic value of a life is separate from how to reduce costs of a healthcare system in a mixed market economy.

	▲	burnt-resistor 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Philosophical arguments around the economic value of a life is separate No, you're missing the point that it's totally inappropriate to treat healthcare as a profit-center by arrogantly trivializing my response, gaslighting, and applying seriously sociopathic cognitive dissonance while avoiding the greater concern.