“Health insurer Aetna Inc.’s fourth-quarter net income jumped 73 percent, as it continued to benefit from low use of health care and some key expenses fell.
The Hartford, Conn., insurer’s earnings and revenue topped Wall Street expectations due in part to slower-than-expected growth in health care use, a trend that has helped insurers routinely outperform the past several quarters. Many analysts expect this trend to continue into 2012…Many say a pullback in consumer spending due to the sluggish economy is behind the slower medical use growth.”
[From the Washington Post]
Or:people are too poor to pay co-pays, or risk paying deductibles, and therefore can’t use their own damn health insurance. Totally a reasonable and rational system.
