Health Insurers' Fast Food Holdings Raise Flag

Source: CBS News

Harvard Researchers Say Private Insurers Are Putting Profits above Public Health Concerns

(CBS) The investments of large insurers of health, disability and long term care in fast food chains like McDonald's and Pizza Hut have raised the interest of a study in the American Journal of Public Health, reports CBS Radio News' John Hartge.

The Harvard Medical School's Dr. Wesley Boyd, an author of the study, finds it ironic that these firms would invest nearly $2 billion in companies that sell food often linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease.

"The insurance industry, so far as it seeks to make a profit, it does so in an amoral way," Boyd said.

...

According to the study, Northwestern Mutual owns $422.2 million in fast-food stock, with $318.1 million invested in McDonald's. Massachusetts Mutual owns $366.5 million of fast-food stock, including $267.2 in McDonald's.

Holland-based ING, an investment firm that also offers life and disability insurance, has total fast-food holdings of $406.1 million, including $12.3 million in Jack in the Box, $311 million in McDonald's, and $82.1 million in Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell.

New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc. sells life insurance and long-term disability coverage. With total fast-food holdings of $355.5 million, Prudential Financial owns $197.2 of stock in McDonald's and also has significant stakes in Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box and Yum! Brands.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/15/health/main6400285.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.9

Does this surprise anyone?

Every large, publicly-traded company puts profits above any human concerns - because that is their purpose. They are responsible to their shareholders, not the government or the people.

They always will because that is how our economic system works. This can't be regulated away, public shaming won't matter. Their job is to make money.

To call this 'amoral' is to pretend that there is a moral way to do it. There's not.

Of course it's amoral, but it's built into the system. Sure there could be companies that 'choose' to do things differently but they will not and cannot ever be the norm.

It's the system.

eta: yes, there's extra irony that they are in the health-care industry

and need insurance.

They are just middle men skimming off the top when there is a problem. Of course they will also invest in businesses that make their cut a little larger. Insurers have no incentive to have a health population

I was shaking my head at what the possible motivation could be, and your explanation sounds about right. I wonder how much money they have in tobacco stocks, as well.

No fucking shit, you don't say.

Wow, stop the presses.

*dons flame-retardant bodysuit*

- and if they didn't, then fast food wouldn't be such a profitable commodity for them to be investing in, would it?

Maybe they should get into cocaine and medical marijuana, as well.

This would be hysterical if it just wasn't so ironic.

:eyes:

It ain't gonna happen, because to the megacorps we are just cash cows and sheep to be shorn and they own too many congresscritters and members of the SCOTUS.

Christ on a Trailer Hitch, are they evil.

Hekate