Insurance companies investing in tobacco…huh?
Health, life insurers invest billions in tobacco stocks
Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine said.
Wesley Boyd, the study’s lead author, found that at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.
“Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people’s health,” said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School.
“It’s clear their top priority is making money, not safeguarding people’s well-being,” he wrote.</em>
Well, duh to that, obviously. If people’s well-being was their concern then everyone would have insurance, with none of this “pre-existing condition” bullshit. But investing in tobacco, a product that only increases the amount you pay out in claims? What sort of business sense is that?
