Size of Health Insurance Conglomerates in U.S. Exceeds That of Big Tech Companies

I have been aware that that large health insurance companies have been expanding by the purchase of PBMs and also entering the market as providers (see, for example:UnitedHealth Group to Launch Its Own Variant of an EHR in 2019; OptumHealth, a Division of UnitedHealth, to Offer Virtual Patient Visits Nationwide). However, I did not really have a sense of their size compared to other sectors of U.S. business. Thus, a recent article on this topic caught my attention (see:Health insurance is as big as Big Tech Data). Below is an excerpt from it:The 5 largest conglomerates combining health insurance and pharmacy benefits are on track this year to be bigger than the 5 preeminent tech companies.... Anthem, Cigna, CVS Health, Humana and UnitedHealth Group cumulatively expect to collect almost $787 billion in 2019, compared with $783 billion of projected revenue for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google....The tech companies cumulatively were 5 times more profitable than the health care companies in 2018 and are projected to be 3.5 times more profitable this year. There's more money to be made selling smartphones and online ads than acting as a health care middleman.Health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers pay out a vast majority of their revenues to hospitals, doctors and drug companies. But insurers and PBMs are still turning large overall profits. And a delay in an Affordable Care Act tax is expected to create a big windfall for the insurance indus...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Insurance Pharmaceutical Industry Source Type: blogs