I subscribe to Wendell Potter’s Substack entitled HEALTH CARE Uncovered. Recently, Rachel Madley authored a piece titled "Where Do Our Health Insurance Premiums Go?"

I wanted to share a couple of quotes from the article and let them “sink in” a bit—

As Wendell Potter recently wrote, from 2014 to 2024 the seven largest publicly traded health insurance companies, UnitedHealth Group, CVS/Aetna, Cigna, Elevance (formerly Anthem), Humana, Centene, and Molina, reported that they collectively made more than half a trillion dollars in profits.
That’s money collected from individuals, employers and taxpayers for health coverage — dollars that didn’t go to medical care but instead flowed to corporate shareholders and executive bonuses.
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Over the same period, these seven companies spent $146 billion buying back their own stock or, in other words, using premium dollars from patients and employers to boost share prices and executive compensation (the CEOs and many other top executives of big insurers are compensated primarily through stock grants and options).
Stock buybacks don’t lower premiums, expand networks, or improve care. They simply make investors and executives richer.
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Insurers aren’t just rewarding shareholders, they’re also shaping the political system that protects their profits. Since 2014, the seven largest insurers and their trade association, AHIP, have spent $618 million on lobbying.
That’s money that could have been used to lower out-of-pocket costs or improve patient care, but instead it’s spent to influence Congress and federal agencies to maintain the status quo.
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The Real Problem — and the Real Solution
As the cost of health insurance continues to climb, politicians debate how to control those costs and expand coverage. But the truth is, there’s already enough money in the system to cover everyone. It’s just being siphoned off by insurance corporations for profits, lobbying, and stock buybacks.

Speaking as someone who is semi-retired and enrolled in a Medicare Advantage program, I’m appalled by the reality of these statements.

Our elderly and retired population is the most vulnerable to medical challenges. And yet, these are the very people that these corporations are taking advantage of.

As of today, November 7th, 2025, we’re in the middle of the Medicare reenrollment period here in the US. I see literally 10s of commercials each day telling us how wonderful these programs are. Just today, I saw about 8 from Humana. A slick spokesperson walks me through how advantageous (pun intended) their programs are. They are slick, well-made, often have celebrity spokespeople, and are compelling.

The shame is, they are not focused on your health. Just making money.

John Oliver recently covered the dark side of Medicare Advantage plans on HBO—

As of mid 2024, people over the age of 65 make up 18% of the US population or about 60 million people. And this percentage is growing.

Doesn’t this strike you as a horrible disservice to our elderly? And an undermining of our perceived governmental support for our healthcare?

It disturbs me even more that our venerable AARP has succumbed to support UnitedHealthcare based on a lucrative financial agreement.

As a committed AARP member who trusted the organization’s intentions, I find this relationship disgusting!

Wrapping Up

There is one reality of which I am convinced…

We will all be elderly at some point.

This sort of malfeasance and its impact to our vulnerable elderly populations needs to be made transparent.

The next question is—

What are we going to do about it?