[AngryMetalsmith]

Study: Insurance companies hold billions in fast food stock

The fast-food industry has long been under fire for selling high-fat, high-calorie meals that have been linked to weight gain and diabetes, but the financial health of the industry continues to attract investors -- including some of the leading insurance companies in the U.S., a new study reports.

According to Harvard Medical School researchers, 11 large companies that offer life, disability, or health insurance owned about $1.9 billion in stock in the five largest fast-food companies as of June 2009.

"The insurance industry cares about making money, and it doesn't really care how," says the senior author of the study, J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. "They will invest in products that contribute to significant morbidity and mortality if doing so is going to make money."

Setting aside the concept that individuals are responsible for their choices and it is reasonable to assume that most people know that fast food is bad for them, this is seriously fvcked up.

 

[Westy]

They will only cover blood pressure medicine when prescribed with a daily cheeseburger.

 

[ohio]

The only reason it's ****ed up is that it's a terrible business decision. Now if they were PHARMA companies, it would be ****ed up.

 

[dante]

Actually, (morals aside, since we know insurance companies don't have morals) I don't see anything wrong with this. They're hedging their investments... If people eat a lot of fast food, people will get fat. Fat people are a bigger drain on insurance companies. However, if the insurance company invested in the fast food chains to begin with, they will have made money off of the investment and can pay back some of the fatties for their heart attacks / Type 2 diabetes / etc.

 

[$tinkle]

far less that 1% of their total portfolio, & even then in mutual funds (i.e., proxy/3rd party investment)?

unclutching the pearls - grabbing a mcmuffintop

i'm a clydesdale; can't hate. if i start eating right i'll drop weight then have to race w/ my age group. and i can't have that.