Aetna Asks For It

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_12/021313.php

AETNA ASKS FOR IT.... Under the circumstances, you'd think private health insurance companies would be on their best behavior. After all, lawmakers are considering all kinds of changes to the system -- including increased regulation of the industry and the creation of a possible public option -- because insurers have done so poorly in providing a critical public service.

This should be, in theory, a time in which these companies put their best foot forward -- a chance for insurers to prove they can do the right thing.

It's interesting, then, to see Aetna announce that it intends to "force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations." It's also raising premiums on its customers -- again.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did the right thing today when he called Aetna out. (Jed Lewison has the video)

"You see, one of the largest private insurance companies in America made a lot of money last year -- more than a billion dollars, in fact. Its chairman and CEO took home at least $100 million of that money himself.

"This health care company is going to make a healthy profit again this year. But its executives decided the profit they're making isn't quite big enough. So this multibillion-dollar company found a clever way to make sure next year's bottom line is even bigger: it's raising its rates.

"As you might expect, those higher premiums are going to be too expensive for many. How many? It could be as many as 650,000 people.

"That's more than the entire populations of North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. It's more than the entire populations of Baltimore and Boston and Denver and Seattle. How many people is this one company willing to drop? You could count every man, woman and child in Las Vegas and still have almost 100,000 people left over.

"But here's the worst part: That shocking estimate comes directly from the president of the company himself. The means the company devised this strategy, crunched the numbers and saw how many American families it was going to hurt. Then the bosses shrugged their shoulders and decided to go ahead with it anyway."

And remember, for those 44 senators who oppose the public option -- 40 Republicans, three Democrats, and Joe Lieberman -- protecting companies like Aetna from even a little competition from a public plan is worth killing health care reform over.

—Steve Benen

[tsuki]

1. Aetna does not have to "make nice". They just have to make

back the money they spent buying 40 Republicons, 3 Democrats and Joe Lieberman. They figure that they killed the public option, so they are turning the screws, and are daring anyone, even the President to say no.

[depakid]

2. "daring anyone, even the President to say no."

And laughing all the way to the bank....

[Maraya1969]

36. Can the President do something? Have they paid the money back? If not I'm sure

he could put a stop to this.

[Aragorn]

3. well...

OK then

[endless october]

4. public option now.

better yet, single payer.

save Medicare : enroll everyone who wants in.

[Deja Q]

12. +1,000,000,000,067,004^893

:)

[laughingliberal]

5. I used Aetna's recent announcement in my comment on a petition I signed online last night

It was a petition to the Senate supporting keeping the PO. The comment I added said I have no faith in the idea of the trigger. I said, "Aetna's announcement they intend to price over 600,000 people out to get them off their roles is typical. The trigger was pulled long ago. Now, they are emptying the chamber."

[tsuki]

20. Ohhh, too good!! I'm stealing that one.

:toast:

[laughingliberal]

21. Thank you! and you are welcome to steal it all you want nt

[jtrockville]

6. re: "putting their best foot forward", I suspect this IS their "best foot"

Why would we rely on their SCAMs so we can get health care?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. This should be interesting.

I'm on my wife's insurance since I'm out of work. As of the first of the year, the insurance will be Aetna instead of United Health.

Universal Health Care sure would be nice.........

Aetna lays off 625 employees.

I see that they've found another way to provide bigger bonuses to the top rats in the company. Lay offs right before Christmas, how American Corporatism of them.

Rest of article.

http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2009/11/19/news/doc4b0612ef6c3af447196589.txt

[rhett o rick]

8. This is just the start of the final phase of capitalistic greed. The star becomes brighter just

before it explodes.

14,000 people a day are losing their health insurance coverage as insurers fight to get the last of the golden eggs before the goose dies. This number will steadily increase and rates will continue to go up as fewer and fewer premium payers are left. Aetna is demonstrating that panic is setting in and IMO they will be followed by the other killer companies as they fight for the remaining profits.

Did I use enough bad analogies?

Thanks for the post.

[laughingliberal]

19. I think you used just the right amount of bad analogies and to very good effect

I think you nailed it!

[rhett o rick]

22. Thanks. Bad analogies-R-me. nt

[Ghost Dog]

9. ... And at least 10% of profits taken home by the CEO, huh?

...And shareholders are happy with that? Who are those shareholders?

(And how much tax did that CEO pay on that?)

[fasttense]

38. The share holders are so diluted that they are powerless.

And even if the shareholders weren't thousands of unknown individuals and faceless 401K, pension and government funds managers, the dancing supremes have made sure to strip most of the shareholders power.

The kings of the corporations are the CEOs. They can do what they please, and like most kings, what pleases them is to rake in more money for themselves.

[msongs]

10. gee how many of those jobs are in Arkansas, home of Blanche Lincoln (R wannabee)? nt

[mudplanet]

11. There aren't more than 650K people in Boston?

Health insurance companies are evil criminal organizations.

[HughMoran]

15. Boston proper = 609,000, "Greater Boston" = 4.4 million

...Greater Boston includes where I live in Southern NH though - lol.

Greater Boston is the 10th largest metropolitan area in the country.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. It is extortion.

100 million dollars? :mad:

[slipslidingaway]

14. Yet we gave Ron Williams plenty of time in the health care discussions...

we must realize that the CEO's first responsibility is to their investors, why fault them for doing their job!

What is happening is exactly what the not for profit advocates have been saying, the for profit companies will find a way to cherry pick the healthiest customers and dump the not so healthy customers into the public plan.


ABC Health: Aetna CEO Ron Williams to Obama - this is not a level playing field - at the White house meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdnipiMV64


http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/11/30/aetna-to-dump-600000-members/

"This act by Aetna indicates the level of sincerity the insurance industry has in its alleged new effort to cooperate in ensuring that everyone has the health care coverage that they need. Aetna is redesigning and repricing its products in order to dump over 600,000 of its less profitable members. They need to be sure that “each customer is priced to an appropriate margin.” And, above all, they owe it to their shareholders “to drive away sicker members.”

...Once Aetna dumps these members, what private insurer is going to jump in to capture this higher cost population? None you say? And under reform? The higher cost individuals buy into the weak public option driving premiums up through adverse selection to even more unaffordable levels?

Try to imagine Medicare dumping over 600,000 patients because they need more medical care. That is unthinkable and would be reprehensible in a public social insurance program such as Medicare. Yet for the private insurance industry, it’s business as usual. And President Obama and Congress want to keep these marketeers in charge? Talk about reprehensible!"


http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0824/outfront-insurance-premiums-aetna-ron-williams-health-reform.html

"...Not, until now, much of a public persona, Williams, 59, is taking a surprisingly visible role in arguing for change in the health care system. He has met with Obama a half-dozen times (he shrugs off the surname gaffe), has testified four times in front of Senate committees this year and participates in shindigs set up by the many trade groups for which he's a director..."


http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2838

"Congressman Dennis Kucinich after voting against H.R. 3962 addresses why he voted NO, stating:

"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system."

"Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick."

"But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross."

..."During the debate, when the interests of insurance companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge was turned back. The 'robust public option' which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129 million Americans to 6 million. An amendment which would have protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration. Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for insurance companies."

..."This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care."

"Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good for the American people and good for America's businesses, with of course the notable exceptions being insurance and pharmaceuticals."

[inna]

24. Outstanding post, please make it an OP so more people can read it!

:applause:

[slipslidingaway]

46. Done and thank you ...

Surprise!!! For Profit Companies Seek to Maximize Profits for Investors
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7172694&mesg_id=7172694

:hi:

[laughingliberal]

16. They are really crossing a line, now. I had a very RW friend last night tell me he

was shocked by a story on insurance company CEOs' salaries he saw the other day. I told him about the Aetna announcement and he was outraged. He even said he is not convinced about needing a public option but he is beginning to think it would be one way to reign these companies in. Then he tells me he saw a discussion about cutting the subsidies to Medicare Advantage and said he didn't see any reason we should be subsidizing these programs when they already get the patient's Medicare premium plus an additional premium.

I can't tell you the significance of this. This is a guy who swallows down every freaking RW talking point Fox news broadcasts and even he is starting to 'get it' about the private insurance cartels. I, of course, took the opportunity to educate him about the difference in administrative costs between Medicare and the private companies. I think this worm is turning with the public and I think the insurance cartels are (hopefully) signing their own death warrants with these gleeful announcements of their intent to screw people further to increase their profit margins.

[babylonsister]

17. I'm very happy to read some eyes are being opened by these

stories/travesties. Let's hope your friend isn't the lone ranger, and thanks for sharing.

[laughingliberal]

18. We shall cross our fingers and wish very hard there are others like him out there

I have to think there are. This guy was more in agreement with the astroturfers than he was with me in August.

[MadMaddie]

23. The death nil to the insurance companies can't happen soon

enough. They are going down and they are the ones that put the big fracken hole in the bottom of their ship. Good Riddance!

[liberation]

28. Health insurers are posting record profits and succeeded completelly in derailing meaningful reform

... thank goodness they are "going down" because I shudder to think what they would be doing if they were thriving.

[juajen]

37. I wish someone would address the other insurance corporations,

who insure our homes and cars all over this country. My deductible for a "named" storm is not at 8500 dollars, and Lafayette isn't even near the coast. Well, it is nearer than Shreveport, but we mostly get high wind, and we pick up our own trees, as insurance companies do not pay for removal of downed trees, just for damage they do if you have met your deductible. It's a bunch of hogwash!

[Ghost Dog]

44. There seem to be plenty of opportunities for bridge-building, making common cause,

between 'progressive', 'radicalized' left and right in the present circumstances (through grassroots 'diplomacy').

It's a shame that that 'Alex Jones' is so fundamentally wrong as regards climate change science, because otherwise...

(And, may I point out, the phrase is "rein in": horses by some are controlled by means of reins; kings and queens (pretend to) reign).

(And, it's "death knell", (cf. other post), Nellie:

Main Entry: 1knell
Pronunciation: \ˈnel\
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English cnyllan; akin to Middle High German erknellen to toll
Date: before 12th century

transitive verb : to summon or announce by or as if by a knellin
transitive verb 1 : to ring especially for a death, funeral, or disaster : toll
2 : to sound in an ominous manner or with an ominous effect

/.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/KNELL

-noun
1. the sound made by a bell rung slowly, esp. for a death or a funeral.
2. a sound or sign announcing the death of a person or the end, extinction, failure, etc., of something: the knell of parting day.
3. any mournful sound.
–verb (used without object)
4. to sound, as a bell, esp. a funeral bell.
5. to give forth a mournful, ominous, or warning sound.
–verb (used with object)
6. to proclaim or summon by, or as if by, a bell.
Origin:
bef. 950; (n.) ME knel, OE cynll; (v.) ME knellen, knyllen, OE cynllan; c. ON knylla to beat, strike; akin to D knal bang, knallen to bang, G Knall explosion, knallen to explode

/.. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/knell).

In fact, as you'll see in the common expression "death knell", the modifier "death" is unnecessary. "Knell" alone is enough.

Ah, and possibly also cf. Blue Whales (who knows?).

Sheesh. Sorry. What's important is self-expression. But language reflects thought, and is a means of communal communication. :hi:

Nb... the sense and etymology of the verb to 'toll', in this context, is subtly but significantly different (For Whom the Bell Tolls):

Main Entry: 4toll
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, to pull, drag, toll (a bell), perhaps alteration of toilen to struggle — more at toil
Date: 15th century

transitive verb 1 : to sound (a bell) by pulling the rope
2 a : to give signal or announcement of <the clock tolled each hour> b : to announce by tolling <church bells tolled the death of the bishop> c : to call to or from a place or occasion <bells tolled the congregation to church>intransitive verb : to sound with slow measured strokes <the bell tolls solemnly>

/.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/TOLL

Main Entry: 3toll
Variant(s): or tole \ˈtōl\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): tolled or toled; toll·ing or tol·ing
Etymology: Middle English tollen, tolen; akin to Old English fortyllan to seduce
Date: 13th century

1 : allure, entice
2 a : to entice (game) to approach b : to attract (fish) with scattered bait c : to lead or attract (domestic animals) to a desired point

/.. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/TOLL

Language. History. So... compelling.

[earcandle]

25. Tax them... and be done with it.

[Union Yes]

26. For profit HC disgraces 'Murikkka. knr nt

[liberation]

27. So? They are laughing all the way to the bank because they know we're going to do diddly squat

[mwooldri]

29. So this makes sense why my employers have dropped Aetna...

My employer self-insures its employees. For 2008 and 2009 we had the choice between BCBS (Empire aka Wellpoint), United Healthcare and Aetna. For 2010, we don't have Aetna as a choice anymore, Empire BCBS will now use the Anthem name instead (same company, different name) and the premiums for United have been bumped up whilst oddly the premiums for the BCBS option has remained the same. The aforementioned Aetna, BCBS, United Healthcare, etc - just provide the network and pricing and process claims, my bosses just pay out.

You're talking a Fortune 100 company dropping coverage with Aetna... ironically the CEO of Aetna sits on the board of my employer. But because of the interstate nature of health care that it is done on a state by state business and my employer is country-wide, Aetna isn't dropped in all states and in some states BCBS isn't an option apparently.

[madamesilverspurs]

30. No surprise.

This is the company that leaned on my brother's employer to have him fired when his toddler was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.


---

[Bette Noir]

31. You know what the worst part is?

The California Nurses' Association published a study a couple of months ago. Of all the health insurers in California, Aetna is the best.

They're crooks, and they're the best we have. You should see the numbers on Pacificare.

[RufusTFirefly]

34. Gotta link to the entire CNA study? n/t

[azurnoir]

32. Thank you

I am worried about my Dad who is 92 and has Medi-Care supplementary insurance through Aetna, he has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma as I found out about 10 days ago (he had not told anyone) will he be one of the ones cut as too expensive

[Divine Discontent]

33. I will state it again - Aetna employees I know are being terrified with lies that they could lose

their jobs if the president's health care bill goes through. I have been told that directly from employees.

[laughingliberal]

47. I am sure all the insurance companies are stressing this to their employees

as well as other for profit components of the health care industry. In 1991 I was working as a nurse for HCA. They came in and had a big meeting where they announced they were cutting our benefits cause "Clinton might get in and he wants to reform health care." Of course 3 months later our CEO, Thomas Frist, Jr (Bill Frist's daddy) is listed in an article on the top ten paid CEO's in the country with a compensation package of $129,000,000 that year. To make matters worse, HCA was found guilty in the largest Medicare fraud case in history over practices which were going on back then.

[subterranean]

49. There might be some employees with cause for concern.

For example, those whose job it is to find pretexts to drop sick customers or deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions. On the other hand, I would think they'll need to hire more people to process claims if the bill goes through, since they will have more customers than ever.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

35. Such crooks

Has anyone else noticed the multiple commercials running during Keith and Rachel for Humana? And how the volume on them gets cranked waaaaaaay up? I gotta make sure I have that mute button within reach.

[The Wizard]

39. Have we reached the moment

when insurance CEOs and boards of directors are dragged into the street, tied to a pole and publicly horse whipped?
With pain comes awareness.

[twitomy]

40. Bastards...NT

[BennyD]

41. Aetna is my insurer. Last yr went up 18/wk, this year the same.

Aetna is their own worst enemy.

[BennyD]

42. This is good news if you're in favor of single payer. Now there will be 650,000 more supporters. n/t

[cap]

43. couldn't we just simply thank Aetna for acknowledging the lack of profitability

in health care, and just put these people on a nicely designed public option? Medicare for the Dumped? If you get dumped by your health insurer, you go straight to Medicare?

[lonestarnot]

45. And 650,000, wonder what they'll think about it?

[cap]

48. more importantly, what will they be voting for?

eom