Thought the outrageous 39% premium spike for WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in California was an anomaly?
We’ll that spike is starting to show up in Wisconsin.
Starting April 1, some Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin individual policies will jump 17% when renewed.
The company is a subsidiary of giant WellPoint Insurance. You know, the company whose CEO made $8.7 million in 2008 and whose profits spiked 727% in 2009. According to a report from SEIU Wisconsin State Council, the company spent $4.7 million on lobbying in 2009, and gave $1 million to the US Chamber of Commerce for ads attacking health care reform.
So if you’re among the people in Wisconsin with Anthem Blue Access PPO, Anthem Blue Economy PPO, Anthem Blue Value PPO or Anthem Blue Preferred Plus HMO, look for your premium to increase between 13.5% and 19.6% over last year’s premium.
The alarm was sounded by the Center for American Progress, which found that WellPoint is increasing rates by double digits in 11 states. Here’s more about the company from CAP:
The company now called WellPoint grew rapidly starting in the late 1990s and has become the nation’s largest health insurer in terms of the total number of people covered under both individual and group policies. Anthem Inc. bought WellPoint Health Networks in 2004 and adopted “WellPoint” as its corporate name. WellPoint ranks 32nd on the 2009 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. companies. It grew by acquiring a string of big, nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield companies, which it turned into a profit-making business. WellPoint reported a $4.7 billion profit for 2009, nearly double that in 2008, although most of the 2009 increase came from the $2.2 billion sale of a unit that managed drug coverage benefits.
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Mike Thomas, president of SEIU Wisconsin State Council, stated in a press release: “Without reform that guarantees quality affordable health insurance, companies such as WellPoint will continue to exploit working families in Wisconsin. This is a reminder that we must renew our struggle for national health care reform.”
