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CEO Angela Braly made over 9 mil last year.

http://healthcarehacks.com/recession-causing-some-americans-to-drop-insurance-delay-care

A WSJ article points out that large numbers of small businesses have been forced to cut or drop coverage for their employees.

So some of WellPoint's claims are true. What they don't tell you is that management and shareholders are trying to maintain their level of compensation in the face of shrinking participation in their plans by raising rates astronomically. Short-sighted and politically stupid IFF Obama and the Democrats attack them strongly on this point. Otherwise, damn good policy on their part.

I guess it would never occur to them to LOWER their premiums across the board so that they could get that larger pool back. Oh, yes, the private sector is the only way to go regarding health care!

The appalling thing (well, ONE of the appalling things) about this is that they are doing it while health care is being debated in Washington! They have no fear of losing ground because they have bought and paid for so many in Congress!

How much money did they spend on lobbyists to prevent people from getting health-care coverage? And now they want their victims to pay for it?! What is wrong with this picture:

hint: EVERYTHING!

Asraham Lincoln warned us, "corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power of the country will endeavor to proclaim its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all weaklth is aggregated into a few hands and the republic is destroyed."

Honest Abe is looking even smarter with this prediction. More imoportantly, this type of corporate arrogance with which his once respectable political party, finally packed the SCOTUS with enough corporatists to construe "Citizens United" issues into betraying and selling out the USA. In 1980, tghe top 1% of incomes inthis country, received 8% of the total US income for the year. In 2006, the top 1% incomes earned 23%. 3X their 1980 slice of the pie. Why? In 2003, GWB slammed through the eliminsation of the top 2 FIT brackets (37/39%) while throwing pennies at the poor and middle class in "across the board" tax cuts McCain correctly labeled as tax cuts for the rich.During this same period, on an inflation adjusted basis, middle income Americans ACTUALLY LOST MONEY. After the Senate hearing on the problem of Plutochracy attended by Warren Buffet, Buffet correctly observed that, "Yes, there is a class war occurring, and my side is winning."WAKE UP IDIOTS", you and your Bircher, birther, Beck/Hannity hatebrigades are part of the 99%; idiots. Don't be like the other Mad Hatters at the Tea Party!!!!! Rename it the Jacobin party, build a guillotine and start separating plutocrat parasites heads from shoulders. REALLY TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK. Don't be the cannon fodder brownshirts for the Fox Follies/Rush blackshirts you are becoming.
God bless you, Bob Reisch keep showing up on Kudlow's show and keep slamming his corrupt "tax cuts" for the wealthy mantra into the pimps for plutocrats faces.

I own a small business in NY State and provide coverage through MVP to myself and 4 employees.

I received a 30% rate increase, which would have cost us 42K/year for 5 people. I was only able to "lower" my costs by opting for a plan with higher co-pays and deductibles. And still absorbed a 22% increase.

This is the "job-killing tax", as the NYS repubs always complain. Single-payer, Medicare-for-all, PO or anything but this would be instantly stimulative and jump-start hiring. Companies would hire more, and more new business would be started.

nuff said

Mr. Reich,

You say that "Anthem's strategy makes sense only if Anthem faces little or no competition from other health insurers."

I wonder if that is the case, or whether Anthem's business model doesn't depend primarily on premiums. For instance, Aetna must not need the 600,000+ members it plans to force out by racheting up premiums this year:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/04/aetna-forcing-600000-plus_n_380130.html

Perhaps financialization makes it less important for Anthem and Aetna to collect premiums, and more important to keep their stock prices up and medical losses down. From the article above:

"As chronicled in a 2004 article in Health Affairs by health economist James C. Robinson, MD, PhD, Aetna completely overhauled its business between 2000 and 2003, going from 21 million members in 1999 down to 13 million in 2003, but boosting its profit margin from about 4% to higher than 7%."

In other words, the increased margin on premiums might not be Anthem's bread and butter. Perhaps they rely on financial transactions to make money, the way GM was making more money in loan originations than on actually selling cars.

Maybe health insurers are the Matrix, and we're just there to power their derivative trades.

Seems crazy that this month the blue cross in tennessee that is having the same economic decrease in subscribers had a rate decrease instead of an increase. I'm an insurance agent, our rates here just went down almost 10%. No clue what they're seeing so different in california.

Scum of the Earth. Time to treat health insurance premiums the same as public utility rates, with regulation backed up by continuous auditing by the state government.

Mr. Reich, nice essay, but your threat to join in any Tea Party organization lacks candor. What you are going to do is support whatever Democrat or Democratic policy that comes down the pike.

The policy you support now will do nothing to lower the costs you pretend to protest. It is well established in study after study that it will drive them up. You know this, yet you continue the charade. Any relief to anyone would only come via shifting the burden to a less politically favored group with the money traveling by way of Washington.

For a list of idea that you say Republicans don't have, please examine these and print a correction:

They include allowing small businesses to band together to get the same insurance discounts big companies get, passing tort reform to eliminate junk lawsuits that drive up the price of health care, and enacting reforms that would make health insurance portable for workers. They also include allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, giving families the same health insurance tax breaks companies get, and empowering patients by making health prices more transparent.

Robert,

You're sort of missing the issue with their justification for the rate increase. The only way in which an exodus from the rolls of the insured would affect the rates for those who still have coverage is if hospitals are raising their rates to cover a suddenly much larger indigent patient population. So the justification from Anthem should include some information about the rates they're paying at hospitals if they hope to use this as a reason. Alternatively, some phone calls to the major providers in the area could probably give some quick insight.

In reality, I would guess, this justification doesn't pass muster and increased utilization and/or straight-up gouging is more likely. Just speculation, but that's how you'll find out.

MN

Bottom line....If Obama and his Congress don't deliver a public option and a public works program by June, they are doomed in November. It would be Jimmy Carter all over again.

The former Vice President for Public Policy and External Affairs at (Anthem) WellPoint, Elizabeth Fowler, is currently the Senior Counsel to Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and leading opponent of the "public option" in healthcare reform.

link

"Anthem" is the title of a novel by Ayn Rand. That alone should have tipped you off. :)

All this makes Anthem one of he best arguments for reform -- on top of that the good news is that the president had his car picked up and delivered on time by Auto Shipping. He was most satisfied with the service provided.

I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. Insurers, remember, are exempt from the federal antitrust laws. And WellPoint, Anthem's parent, is the largest car transport insurer in America.

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