It’s not in the cards. And, now would’ve been the best chance it ever (hopefully) would have had. I think when the dust settles the word ‘never’ would be reasonable.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/28/wellpoint-attacks/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/wellpoint-poster-child-fo_b_294343.html

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/how-much-money-do-insurance-companies-make-a-primer/?apage=2

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=17974

http://www.alternet.org/politics/143089

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5403360/WellPoint-freezes-pensions-insurer-joins.html

My concern is that one day all health care will be one company and control all health care costs and no one will have a say since there will be no competition out there.

The articles above are specific about WellPoint that is buying out several other companies and that they are reducing benefits to the employees, suing the state of Maine for a guarantee profit of 3% next year by increasing premium to the policyholders by 18%. The list goes on and on.

Hey and I would not be surprised that even if by some chance they could go bankrupt in the future, our government will step in and give them a bailout just like the banks and the auto companies with no restrictions and they will still deny claims and the CEOs’ will get richer.

Maybe I am a little bit cynical since unless we get a single payer system or universal health care, nothing is going to change even with the health care reform that they are trying to get thu.

As for the stock prices, this must have been a bad quarter, so they will just have to cut more sick insureds or pay less claims so that they can satisfy wall street. Read the articles on Wendell Potter who is now the whistle-blower out there on the health care industry and he goes into details how wall street and insurance companies dictate stock prices.