Source: The American Prospect
by Olivia Webb Kosloff & Emma Freer
“During back-to-back congressional hearings last month, lawmakers grilled the CEOs of five major health insurers about their vertically integrated business models. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called for breakup legislation modeled on the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which structurally separated commercial and investment banking. The idea of bank-style regulation for health insurers isn’t as far off as it sounds. As Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) pointed out, insurance companies take in premiums and invest that money (known as ‘float’) before having to pay it out in claims. ‘That, of course, is what leads to people calling insurers banks, doing a side business as health care,’ Bentz explained. ‘[Y]ou charge the premium, you collect the money, you put the money in the bank, it earns interest, and then you pay it out.'” (02/11/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/11/bank-medicine-health-insurers-united-health-optum-financial/