Wellpoint: You Will Never Find a More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

[Joanne98]

Let’s start with the basics. Wellpoint is the largest US health insurer, and its CEO is a charming woman named Angela Braly. From the Wall Street Journal:

Mrs. Braly is the CEO and president of WellPoint, the largest U.S. commercial health insurer by membership. Her company’s affiliated health plans in 14 states cover 34 million people—or roughly one out of nine Americans. It contracts with 82% of the nation’s primary-care physicians, 84% of specialists, and 94% of hospitals. That scale lands her on the most-wanted list in President Obama’s Washington, though it’s tough to imagine a less likely villain than the very Midwestern Mrs. Braly.

(Ah yes. She must be a good person if she’s from the Midwest, right, right. That’s some quality WSJournamalism.)

Times are pretty good at Wellpoint, and even better for Mrs. Braly. In 2008 the company took in 61.2 billion, yes, billion dollars. Mrs. Braly took in almost 10 million herself in total compensation.

Keep that figure in mind when you read this next bit:

In 2007, just as Democrats took control of Congress, WellPoint pledged that its charitable foundation would spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

…

However, WellPoint’s public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity’s total giving over the last three years.

To simplify: Wellpoint pledged, out of the goodness of their black corporate hearts, to spend 30 million dollars to help the uninsured. Keep in mind that much of this money could have landed right back in their pockets if the uninsured in question were ‘helped’ to buy Wellpoint products. However, they didn’t *feel* like keeping their word, so they broke it. C’est la vie

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/36553

[sharesunited]

1. I paid their Unicare division a lot of premiums for a high-deductible policy.

Never made a claim.

Then they pulled out of my state.

For-profit health insurance is truly a flaky model.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. but what of Blackwater, Enron, and Haliburton?

OK, they aren't health care related, not directly, but I submit that they are as bad, if not worse.

[Myrina]

3. ... they'll be in the market soon enough ...

... I'm sure they're in 'expansion development' sessions as we speak, just like back in the 90's when "Welfare to Work" was being pushed hard, Lockheed-Martin went into the Welfare Administration business. Some predators will follow a dollar anywhere.

[patrice]

4. Carlyle Group got into Elder Care last year; they bought an LTC chain in (Wisconsin, I think).

[Lorien]

6. Bought some in Florida. Killed a good friend's mother

they didn't treat a staff infection that she got at the facility and tried to cover it up. He's battling them in court now.

[Lorien]

5. Oh, I dunno, N.A.S.E was pretty bad:

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcriptNOW218_full.html

[eridani]

7. And a Wellpoint sociopath wrote the Senate health care bill

And passing it is "progress." Shit.