Health Care Industry Profit Margin

It has often been said, lately, especially by President Obama, that the health care industry is taking inordinate amounts of profit from the money it takes in from premium payments paid by its customers. The table below indicates that the health care industry is #86 among other industries in the United States in amount of profit margin. This table was constructed in August 2009 by Mark J. Perry, Professor of Economics and Finance in the School of Management at the University of Michigan. Dr. Perry has a Ph.D. from George Mason University and a MBA from the University of Minnesota. His complete report on this issue can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/nyw78m. (Double click on the table to view it in a zoomed in size.)

It seems to me that, even though, 3.3% of the premium money that goes into health care payments, is a lot of money, this is not an unreasonable amount of profit for an American industry.