Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health insurer based on membership, spent $1.2 million lobbying
the federal government in the fourth quarter of 2009 as it weighed in on several topics tied to the health care overhaul debate.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met at the White House with the CEOs of Indianapolis-based WellPoint,
Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, as well as several state insurance commissioners.
A consumer watchdog group filed a lawsuit Monday against WellPoint’s California subsidiary on behalf of policyholders, claiming
they were pushed to take coverage with fewer benefits and higher deductibles.
The California attorney general has demanded documents from several health insurers, including Indianapolis' WellPoint,
believing that their rate-setting and claims practices might be illegal.
While insurers get the blame for rising health-care costs for consumers, surging fees from hospitals and the growing dominance
of such providers may be just as responsible for driving up expenses, according to a new study examining California's
market.
Amid attacks from Democrats over high executive salaries, Angela Braly testified in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that big
insurance-premium increases are
the result of growing price tags for hospital care and pharmaceuticals.
California lawmakers grilled Anthem Blue Cross executives on Tuesday about their plan to boost individual insurance premiums
by as much as 39 percent, only to hear them blame the economy and a broken health care system.
Executives are scheduled to testify Tuesday before a California legislative committee and on Wednesday before a U.S. House
of Representatives committee about big premium increases.
Obama, seeking to break an impasse over health-care legislation, proposes a plan that includes the first Medicare tax on unearned
income such as capital gains and higher fees on drugmakers.
President Obama’s latest push for a health care overhaul could drive health plans around the country into insolvency, according
to an insurance trade group.
President Barack Obama is making a fresh attempt to rescue his health care overhaul by proposing a measure that would allow
the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriate consumers.
At the heart of the debate is the question of what should be a fair profit for health insurers. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly
will likely be grilled on the issue when she appears at a Congressional hearing Wednesday.
President Obama will release a proposal to restart the health-care debate before a bipartisan White House meeting on Feb.
25, one day after WellPoint officials testify before Congress about steep rate increases.
The furor over WellPoint Inc.’s premium hikes have migrated from California to Indiana, where state lawmakers held a
high-profile hearing.
Congressman Andre Carson will make remarks Thursday during a public chastising of Indianapolis-based health insurer for 21-percent rate
hike on individuals.
State House insurance committee chair grills executives about WellPoint’s 21-percent premium increase for individual policyholders
in Indiana.
Three WellPoint executives will be on hand Wednesday morning to answer questions about premium increases on its individual
policies, which have risen as high as 39 percent this year.
The Indianapolis-based insurer, preparing for Congressional testimony on proposed premium increases in California, says its
earnings forecast is now less clear.
Even before WellPoint dissatisfied President Obama over its rate increases in California, it wasn’t doing so hot satisfying
its actual customers, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Individual insurance rate hikes like those recently planned for WellPoint Inc.’s California customers might be unlikely to
spread to those covered through their employers. But such hikes will affect a huge number of Americans — the 46 million
with no insurance at all.
