I agree they’re not especially big in terms of profit. However, that doesn’t mean they are not evil. These companies increase profit margin by denying coverage. They try really hard to pretend like they are providing a particular service level and will happily collect your money with that expectation. And then, at a later point, they deny coverage, often in a fraudulent way, in order to create their higher margin. To me the low profit margin is therefore not really relevant. If they provided the product that everyone expects that they are paying for, their margin would be lower and that is exactly what should happen.
How much lower can profit margin get than 2% before a business stops being a business and becomes a charity?
Why would it even have shareholders at that point?
Surely, even someone who hasn’t operated a business can see why revenue should exceed expenses by a couple percent to survive volatility, much less make it worth investing in.
Maybe it should be near 0% for this business because that is the end result of competition and a functioning market. Or maybe they should just become better at operating more efficiently. But what they shouldn’t do is artificially create profit margin by stealing from their customers and handing them death sentences instead of providing the care that is paid for. When you deceive and defraud customers and literally cause them harm when they’ve paid you to avoid harm, that does seem evil. That’s what I’m pointing out.
The business model contains dark patterns incentivizing patient deaths in many cases. It’s not that they’re turning a profit, it’s that they’re profiting off of death. If it was a break-even org (I.e. non-profit), people would likely have less of an issue with it.
