California Eye » Wellpoint

7 Dem Senators dragging feet on health care reform

Featheriver — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:43:46 +0000

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the president did not believe the public option had the votes to pass the Senate even through reconciliation. It was, not surprisingly, not included in the president’s final bill.

Though the White House and Democratic leadership in the House have pronounced the death of the public option, advocates for the provision are not giving up efforts to get it passed via reconciliation in the Senate.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is targeting seven Democratic senators who have yet to sign a letter urging Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to go down this route.

The target list includes Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Jim Webb (Va.), Russ Feingold (Wisc.), Herb Kohl (Wisc.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo).

The Wellpoint news may prove to be an effective catalyst to getting recalcitrant senators on board.

In 11 states where WellPoint is “active,” individual premium are expected to rise by double digits. Those states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

[Source: Huffington Post]

These guys need to be jacked up!

Insurance Companies purging sickest customers to enhance profits

Featheriver — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:58:27 +0000

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]

WellPoint cuts employee healthcare benefits

Featheriver — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:02:31 +0000

WellPoint health insurance company, which has encouraged its employees to lobby against health care reform, is now cutting their benefits.

The insurance giant plans to raise deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits.

“Like many employers in today’s economic environment, we are looking at all aspects of our business,” including benefits, “and making adjustments to ensure we can continue to operate competitively in the future,” wrote Chief Human Resources Officer Randy Brown.

WellPoint’s CEO, Angela Brady, made nearly $10 million in 2008.

WellPoint illegally pressured California employees this summer to fight health care reform, according to Consumer Watchdog. “Regrettably, the congressional legislation, as currently passed by four of the five key committees in Congress, does not meet our definition of responsible and sustainable reform,” said the company’s Anthem Blue Cross unit in a company e-mail. The proposals would hurt the company by “causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan.”

A House investigation found that WellPoint also rewarded employees for finding ways to drop policyholders who developed expensive conditions — a practice known as rescission.

Suppose those WellPoint employees might now want to switch to a public option “Medicare for all” health care plan? What goes around comes around.

AFL-CIO seeks investigation of health care insurance premiums

Featheriver — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:16:44 +0000

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Thursday urged some state insurance commissioners to investigate how the costs of insurers’ lobbying to defeat health-insurance reform are affecting premiums.

“We believe that health insurance providers’ lobbying expenditures have led to excessive rate hikes,” Trumka wrote to regulators in Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania. Laws in those states require insurance regulators to approve rate changes. Two of the four top insurance companies, WellPoint Inc. (WLP) and Cigna Corp. (CI), are based in Indiana and Pennsylvania, respectively.

The AFL-CIO leader also pointed to Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which has requested a rate hike of up to 30% in Connecticut while spending more than $9.5 million on lobbying, and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), which recently proposed a premium increase for its Medicare supplemental insurance while spending more than $2.6 million on lobbying in the first half of 2009.

In addition, Trumka asked regulators to investigate allegations that UnitedHealth and Anthem/WellPoint forced employees to attend meetings intended to pressure them into helping their employers oppose pending health insurance reform legislation.

According to the AFL-CIO – which is supporting the Obama administration’s efforts – premiums for employer-based health insurance more than doubled in the past decade while the health-care industry spent more than $3.5 billion on lobbying.

The health-care industry is the biggest-spending lobbying force in Washington. In the second quarter, health-care players spent $133 million pressing their interests, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Labor unions and others with a stake in the health-care debate also are lobbying heavily

Insurance companies have been lobbying Congress to defeat the inclusion in health-care reform bills of a “public option” that would provide health insurance at lower costs than is now available. Groups of all stripes are blitzing lawmakers to shape a trillion-dollar health-care overhaul that would reach into every business and home in the country.

If the insurance industry gets the rate increase that would indicate the premium payers will be offsetting the lobbying costs of the health insurance industry. They sure don’t want to pay for the lobbying costs out of their profits.

Senator Enzi’s ties to health insurance industry

Featheriver — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:48:54 +0000

Max Baucus [VoteSmart] [OpenSecrets] isn’t the only senator who may be taking his health care cues from insurance companies. WellPoint Inc., recently revealed to have influenced Baucus’s health care framework, also has notable ties to Gang of Six Senator Mike Enzi [VoteSmart] [OpenSecrets] (R-Wyo.).

Enzi’s former health policy director between 2003 to 2006, Stephen J. Northrup, is now a registered lobbyist for WellPoint, a subsidiary of insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield. [Huffington Post]

Northrup, who has represented numerous health insurance and pharmaceutical companies in the past, is currently “responsible for leading WellPoint’s advocacy efforts before Congress and various federal government agencies,” according to the journal Modern Healthcare.

That’s not all. Blue Cross Blue Shield is currently Enzi’s biggest contributor, according to the Center For Responsive Politics, having provided the Republican senator a total of $38,500 in campaign cash this election cycle. Overall, Enzi has accepted $793,711 from various health care industries since 2005.

Enzi, whose Gang of Six may decide the fate of health care reform, is the only senator to sit on all three committees tasked with drafting the the health care bill — the Finance Committee, Budget Committee and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (H.E.L.P.) Committee.

While Enzi has advocated for a “bipartisan” solution to health care reform, he has shown more interest in opposing the whole effort. At a town hall in late August, Enzi admitted to obstructing the legislation and has since predicted it will fail.

Senior White House officials have criticized Enzi for his role in trying to defeat the health care legislation, suggesting they may be willing to forgo his support — and bipartisanship in general — to pass a bill.

But it remains unclear how President Obama will proceed as he said in Wednesday’s prime-time speech that he remains committed to working with Republicans to formulate a bipartisan bill, despite accusing them of promulgating “misinformation” and “lies”.

Talk about a conflict of interest! Whose interests is he looking out for? Wellpoint, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, or the people of Wyoming? This all adds to the obvious. Far too many people in Congress are paid for and owned by big Corporate interests. I can’t believe how long it is taking for people to wise up.

Nevadans Demonstrate for Health Care Reform; Wellpoint fights back

Featheriver — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:56:41 +0000

Photo: Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Demonstrators, who gathered at the intersection of Fort Apache and Russell roads in Las Vegas, want healthcare reform. But Wellpoint, a major critic of a government-run health insurance plan, will have none of it. The company spent $1.22 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009.

A spokes person for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a subsidiary of WellPoint said:

“The current market for health insurance is competitive, and a government-run insurance plan would create problems in the marketplace, including…reducing consumer choice by driving insurers out of the market and hurting the ability of private plan initiatives to improve the quality and control costs in the delivery system.”

Launce Rake, spokesmen for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which helped organize the rally, responded:

“I understand that they’re concerned about competition. If I was WellPoint, I would be concerned about competition as well,” he said. “The CEO of WellPoint has publicly said his concern is for the shareholders. My concern is for the health of Americans.”

In July 2008, WellPoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross agreed to a settlement with the California Department of Managed Health Care. In order to resolve allegations of improper rescission (cancellation of policies due to claims), WellPoint paid $10 million and reinstated 1,770 policy-holders whose plans they had cancelled. They also agreed to provide compensation for any medical debts incurred by these policy-holders in the meantime. However, WellPoint did not officially admit liability.^[3]

The President and CEO of Wellpoint is 46 year old born in Texas, Angela Brayly. In April 2009 she was earning $4.07 million. She also owns $4.6 million of Wellpoint stock. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. Wellpoint’s revenue was$56.593 billion in 2006.

Photo: of Angela Brayly by Yoni Brook

Earlier this year the company settled lawsuits with ten patients who claimed that their policies were canceled after an injury or diagnosis. (WellPoint had argued that they had concealed preexisting conditions.) Doctors in several states have filed class actions claiming WellPoint plans withhold payments. It’s the only health insurer in California actively opposing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to provide everyone with health insurance. [Forbes]

Read a lot more on Desert Beacon’s excellent analysis of Wellpoint and the healthcare crisis.