"Going forward, if insurers are not able to balance overall profitability in this manner, some might choose to withdraw from less-profitable market segments, which could leave consumers with fewer choices as well as higher premiums," McCue and Hall wrote.
Some drug industry analysts say, however, that even by limiting the program to the cheapest generics, Wal-Mart might be able to declare the overall program profitable only by spreading the costs well beyond its pharmacy ledger.
Looking to the future, Bihler said his objective is to scale all these revenue streams in the HappyFresh business and push to make the overall company profitable.
BMW also makes motorcycles and provides car-related financial services, which helped the company remain profitable overall last year.
The company remained profitable overall during 2009 because of earnings from its financial services and motorcycle units.
Its "content acquisition" costs in 2013 accounted for 53.8% of its revenues: more favourable than Spotify, but still not profitable overall.
The unions have resisted Verizon's requests for concessions on scores of issues because the company has been very profitable overall, with net income of $6.9 billion in the first six months of this year.
Ford is profitable overall, with pretax earnings, before special items, of $2.7 billion so far this year.
