In case you were under the misconception that health and life insurers care about your health and wellbeing, recent research will leave you disillusioned. In an American Journal of Public Health article, physician researchers indicate their disturbing findings: as of June 2009, insurers owned $1.9 billion worth of fast food stock.

What does this mean? If you stay healthy, insurers profit because they don’t pay out. If you choose unhealthy habits like a fast food diet (Super Size Me, anyone?), insurers profit because their asset value rises. Through their investments in Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, Yum! Brands (purveyors of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell etc.) and Wendys/Arbys, the health and life insurance industry has covered itself in the face of continued poor American health habits.

Where is their incentive to keep you well? There isn’t any. To anyone who wants to let the free market work in healthcare, here’s yet more proof that it already does. Unfortunately that means it’s not about health or care, just profits. Have a french fry.

In an interesting test case for future federal insurance regulatory powers, on Thursday Massachusetts denied almost 86% of proposed health insurance rate hikes for 2010. That’s 235 of 274 hikes averted, worth $6-8 million a month, if anyone’s counting.

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What do you get when you combine today’s limited comparative effectiveness research with aggressive value-based insurance design? A risky and expensive proposition for patients, that’s what. I’m a fan of the value-based insurance design concept, which rewards patients and healthcare providers for using the most effective care, even if it’s more expensive. But when private insurers use it to fleece patients in a bait-and-switch scheme, it’s another matter entirely.

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If you’re following the healthcare reform debate at all, you know there’s a bit of noise over two austere-sounding health plan concepts: medical loss ratio and actuarial value. They sound bone-dry and bring to mind visuals of bean-counters lost in complex calculations. Yes, these are bean-counting subjects in the extreme. But don’t dismiss them – they could make or break your financial, much less your physical health. Here is a step-by-step guide to understanding medical loss ratios and translating actuarial value into meaningful building blocks for your healthcare coverage.

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Tell your Congressional representatives that being a woman is not a pre-existing condition. No, we’re not kidding … more and more insurers base coverage and premium decisions on your gender. Click below to find out more and sign the petition at Change.org!                                  blogsurfer.us