Insurance Companies purging sickest customers to enhance profits
One way health insurance companies can afford million dollar salaries for their executives is to get rid of their sickest insurance holders.
trying to maximize profits by purging its sickest customers while spending millions on exorbitant salaries and retreats for its executives, congressional Democrats said Wednesday.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at a hearing on WellPoint Inc. that his panel’s investigators had received internal company documents showing that in 2008, 39 company executives received salaries of $1 million or more. And in 2007 and 2008, it spent $27 million for 103 executive retreats.
Waxman says “Corporate executives at WellPoint are thriving, but its policy holders are pay the price.”
WellPoint owns Anthem Blue Cross which wants to raise its rates by 39% in some instances.
The president of WellPoint, Angela Braly, claims the reason for the increase in rates is because he price tag for hospital care and pharmaceuticals is growing, the lousy economy, dropping of coverage by younger healthy people, leaving the insurance company with an “older, sicker population.”
Wikipedia notes “As of April 2009, Braly had the 306th highest compensation for a US CEO, having earned $4.07 million, which is 74th among females. She owns $4.6 million worth of WellPoint stock…” She was born in Dallas Texas July 1, 1961. She now lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Doug, and three kids, Tyler, Matthew, and Rachel. “She generally supports Republican political candidates with campaign contributions.
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, called Obama’s effort to pass health care reform a “six-hour photo op.”
The Obama administration cited WellPoint’s reported profit of $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year as evidence that insurers’ rate boosts need to be curbed.
[Source: Reno Gazette Journal]
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