Secretary of Health and Human Services Katherine Sebelius today sent a scathing letter to Anthem Blue Cross of California demanding to know why the Wellpoint Inc. subsidiary is raising that state's individual insurance premiums 39 percent.
"These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy," she writes. "Your company's strong financial position makes these rate increases even more difficult to understand. As you know, your parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone."
She could have also pointed out, as Matthew Holt did on the Health Care blog yesterday, that Wellpoint ceo Angela Braly earned nearly $10 million in salary, stock and stock options last year. That ought to get people fired up and ready to go. ...
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