I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

Feinstein argues that the profit motive in health insurance creates a structural conflict with the goals of health reform. In her view, when insurers are accountable to shareholders, money that could fund care is instead diverted to dividends, stock buybacks, executive compensation, and other profit-seeking priorities. The quote frames nonprofit insurance not as a moral preference but as a practical prerequisite for effective reform: a system designed to maximize returns will resist or dilute reforms that reduce margins, even if they improve access or affordability. Implicitly, she contrasts health care with ordinary consumer markets, suggesting that essential services should be organized around public benefit rather than financial extraction.