Whilehealth insurance companies spend more than $640,000 per day onlobbyingand, yes, that is just for direct lobbying of Congress, notTV, radio and newspaper adsto defeat health care reform, MarquetteUniversity invites the CEO of WellPoint, the second-largest healthinsurer in America, to come to Milwaukee to defend the practices of hercompany and the health insurance industry in general.
Itis totally understandable that WellPoint CEO Angela Braly would be outon the stump defending the status quo, since her company made more than$2 billion in profits last year and she was paid a healthy $9.8 millionin 2008.
“Ms.Braly’s so-called success as a CEO has been bought with the unnecessarysuffering of many people who trusted her company to stand behind themin time of need,” said Nancy Holmlund, president of WISDOM, afaith-based Wisconsin organization. “WellPoint’s huge profits and Ms.Braly’s salary have come, in part, through aggressively denyingbenefits to sick people. Now they are using millions of dollars ofthose same profits to lobby Congress to deny reform to everyone.”
Sohow did WellPoint get so profitable?
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According to the House Oversightand Investigations Subcommittee, WellPoint rewards its employees forfinding ways to drop coverage to sick policyholders.
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According to the Feb. 13 issue of the Los Angeles Times, WellPoint sent out thousands of letters to doctors looking for conditions they could use to cancel coverage for patients.
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TheHouse Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee found that WellPointlists 1,400 conditions, including cancer, that can lead to revocationof insurance coverage.
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The Feb. 11 issue of the Los Angeles Timesreportedthat WellPoint was fined $15 million for dropping coverage forthousands of members after they submitted expensive medical bills.
Andthis is just a sampling of reasons for their profitability. It is nowonder that protesters were out in force at Marquette to try to set therecord straight.
Hero of the Week:Iraq War Veteran Jason Moon
Milwaukeeanand Iraq War veteran Jason Moon will be among those honored with aPeacemaker of the Year Award on Oct. 3 by the Wisconsin Network forPeace and Justice. Moon, who served in Iraq from July 2003 throughAugust 2004, is a leader in the Milwaukee chapter of Iraq VeteransAgainst the War (IVAW) and Veterans for Peace (VFP). He also serves onthe board of VFP’s Homeless Veterans Initiative, which seeks to findand assist homeless veterans in the Milwaukee area. For his service, aswell as his courage in speaking out against the war, we applaud Moonand make him our Hero of the Week.
Jerk of the Week:Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker
Whilemost mainstream politicians have distanced themselves from thefar-right Tea Parties, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker embracedlast weekend’s anti-tax rally sponsored by the Big Oil-funded Americansfor Prosperity. But we have to ask: Was Walker, a Marquette Universitydropout, being ironic when he chose to wear a shirt touting thetaxpayer-supported University of Wisconsin-Madison to ananti-government, pro-free-market rally? Did the longtime governmentemployee speak the truth when he told the crowd at a county-owned park“What is failing us is our government”? Why did he fail to mention thathis no-tax-increase budgets inevitably blow up every year? Like fellowrally-goers “Joe the Plumber” and ga-ga conservative pundit MichelleMalkin, Walker eagerly seeks out the spotlight, cameras and microphone,yet his accomplishments are nothing more than publicity stunts andpolitical trickery. Beware, Wisconsin.
