Thread

1. iamdelirium · 1790353251 · focus · HN ↗

   I wonder if this is going start being abused soon.

   If I was Palantir or any other GOP aligned company, I would be completely against this. What's to stop a Democratic president from doing the same thing and destroying them?

   1. doctorwho42 · 1790353897 · focus · HN ↗

      Because the modern Democrats are primarily a corporate dominated party. They haven't really had any hard hitting legislation nor legal regulation/rulings on corporations in easily the last 30 years.

      I doubt that is going to change anytime soon. They are a private entity, so they can manage and change their primary system any way they want.

      1. ajross · 1790354685 · focus · HN ↗

         > Democrats are primarily a corporate dominated party. They haven't really had any hard hitting legislation nor legal regulation/rulings on corporations in easily the last 30 years.

         Sarbanes-Oxley? Dodd-Frank? ACA? Now I'm sure you (like, every other living human) has a ton of nitpicks and criticism of bills like that. But they're real and they passed and they're largely-to-wholely partisan creations of the Democratic policy apparatus (SOX looked very bipartisan and was passed under Bush, but the actual bill was written mostly by democratic staffers).

         I mean, fine, you'd like different regulation. But they're responsible for basically all the corporate regulation active in the US regime.

         Bothsidesism is a very poor tool for this particular argument. Work with your allies, please.

         1. reliabilityguy · 1790355191 · focus · HN ↗

            > ACA?

            How’s ACA hard-hitting on corporations?

            The 15/20 rules is what resulted in recorder profits in health insurance business, how’s this anti-corporate?

            1. lotsofpulp · 1790355247 · focus · HN ↗

               Then why do the 7 publicly listed health insurers have shitty shareholder returns?

               If their profits are so good, their shares would be worth owning.

               Could it be because their profit margins are actually terrible (3% if lucky), and they have to get the price of their product approved by 50 different state government employees, and the federal government constantly changes their customer’s subsidies making revenue and expenses extremely volatile and difficult to forecast?

               1. eli · 1790356088 · focus · HN ↗

                  If you bought shares of those 7 companies in 2010 when the ACA passed, how much would you have today? More or less than if you bought the S&P 500?

                  If you're looking for policies to blame for insurance companies having a rough 2025-2026, look to the Republican-led efforts cap Medicare fees and alter eligibility requirements.

                  1. lotsofpulp · 1790356188 · focus · HN ↗

                     No...you wouldn't. Maybe UNH gets you a couple extra percentage points per year, but that's because they have a huge healthcare provider business instead of just being an insurer. But it's still nowhere near a positive risk adjusted return when comparing to a relatively risk-less investment in SP500.

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