On July 10, 2012, Walter Hamilton writes in the Los Angeles Times that insurance giant WellPoint, the parent of Anthem Blue Cross, has agreed to pay $4.9 billion for Amerigroup, which specializes in the Medicaid business.
One of the nation’s biggest insurance companies is trying to cash in on healthcare to the poor.
WellPoint Inc., the parent of Woodland Hills provider Anthem Blue Cross, agreed to pay $4.9 billion to purchase a company specializing in the Medicaid business. The all-cash deal calls forAmerigroup Corp. shareholders to receive $92 a share, a 43 percent premium over Friday’s closing price.
The acquisition of Amerigroup would make WellPoint the nation’s largest Medicaid administrator as the private sector moves increasingly into the government-run health program for the indigent.
Amid rising enrollment and an increasing need to control costs, managed-care companies are betting that cash-strapped states will turn to them to run their Medicaid programs.
This is more evidence that there are big bucks to be made from publicly funded coverage, yet NO ONE is advocating that private companies’ expansions be financed to broaden their private, individual ownership. The result will be to hoard and concentrate ownership of future economic growth among a tiny minority.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wellpoint-purchase-20120710,0,5559191.story
