Health Insurance Investments In Big Tobacco Revealed

Posted by on 2009/06/11


by Irma Arkus

Privatisation of health care is a fabulous thing, if you are a health insurance company, that is.

According to the latest report in the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol 360:2483-2484, no. 23, Jun 4, 2009) by Boyd, Himmelstein and Woolhandler, the insurance companies in US and abroad have been confirmed to own stock in tobacco manufacturing amounting to almost $4.5 billion in investment. The largest being Prudential.

In other words, the lovely people who are vested in keeping you healthy, are also intentionally vested in manufacturing and distributing variety of cancer-causing substances.

Introduction of a US national health care coverage is currently a hot topic, as people are faced with a broken health care system. This report only adds fuel to fire, as health insurance companies directly profit and twofold, from patients suffering due to use of tobacco. [NEJM, subscription required]

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  • ddaniel

    shitheads. all shitheads. all shitty, grimy examples of humanity that needs to be thrown in jail and forgotten about. my mother died of cancer and to have my medical insurance provider literally invest in a cancer-causing product like cigarettes pisses me off. we give THESE people money every day and they do this! I am so disappointed.

  • kitchie

    People who smoke or drink or doesn’t even care about their health but has applied for health insurance should change their habits. Insurance is very important because we can be financially supported by it without paying any medical bills if presently sick or has a bad condition of health. Working hard pays all bills and keeps you secured (at work, and financially) and for this, we should take good care of our health and to give ourselves discipline at times. captive insurance domiciles

  • johniard

    I agree with ddaniel but I believe we’re partly responsible for it as well. If we take responsibility to take care of our health as much as possible i.e by reducing alcohol intake, no smoking, exercising, proper eating, etc which doesn’t cost much – then we wouldn’t have to rely much on these companies. I am not in favor of the companies but my point is only that we smoke that is why they produce it. And like other companies, an insurance company is also a company so expect them to be like that as well.

    Invest in Real Estate

  • grahamp

    personal responsibility is limited – we have governments collecting tax on products such as tobacco. unless that is incorrect, there is nothing illegal about partaking in such a product. the fact that the tobacco industry KNOWINGLY distributed and endorsed this highly addictive product is a completely another story. no offense, but here in US, our medical insurance companies are raking it in. it comes as no surprise that they would support ways of making insurance applicants easily dismissed due to their “bad habits”