Profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly traded health insurance companies in 2007 rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In 2007 alone the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million—an average of $11.9 million each. That is 468 times more than the $25,434 an average American worker made that year.

The Health insurance industry is throwing millions of dollars a day at lobbying to maintain the status quo. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s not for our benefit. It’s for their own benefit.