MN insurance company investments take a hit - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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However, many were able to offset those losses by setting premiums that slightly exceeded what was paid out inhealth claims. The council’sz membership, which includes major state healthj insurance players suchas , and , had a combinee investment income of $11 million, down from $195.5 million in 2007. The insurers in previous years had used the investmenft income to make up for shortfalls in which added up to morethan $230 million from 2005 to 2007. “Thid just proves that we can’t live off investmenft income like we did the lastthres years,” said council spokeswoman Eileen Smith.
Numbers from the council also showex continued growth in enrollmentin HSA/HRA plans, which have become more attractive to employers because they combine high deductibles with savings accounts to get workers to more activelyy think about their health spendintg choices. Council members had 547,642 HSA/HRq enrollees in 2008, up 20 percent from the year Morethan 455,000 Minnesotans were enrolled in state public programs in 2008 — an increase of 10 percent over the previousd year. The increase was fueled by growth in Medicaid programs servingthe poor, a possible symptom of the recession. Overal health plan enrollment was 4.3 million, a 2.
6 percen increase from the previous Alsoon Tuesday, HealthPartners said 2008 was its secon consecutive year of record membership growth. The Bloomington-based healtuh insurer and provider added morethan 97,000 medical and 22,000 dentao members, bringing its membership to nearly 1.25 HealthParters in 2008 had net income of $64.78 million on revenue of $3 billion. Blue Crosws and Blue Shield of Minnesota’zs membership stayed flat at 2.8 millio n in 2008, the same year the Eagan-based insuretr experienced a net lossof $15.7 millionn on revenue of $8.8 billion.
Blue Cross said much of the deficit was due toinvestment