Wednesday, February 24, 2010

WellPoint needs premium hikes to guarantee profits

To guarantee profits without diminishing executive pay or bonuses. Rep. Henry Waxman and his committee have been looking into WellPoint Blue Cross and their Magical Mystery rate hikes. What they found was obvious.
WellPoint Inc.’s internal documents show the health insurer sought to raise rates in California to boost company profits and cover costs ballooned by executive pay and corporate retreats, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman said.

WellPoint, the biggest U.S. insurer by enrollment, may have manipulated actuarial assumptions it cited to justify a rate increase as high as 39 percent, Waxman, a California Democrat, said at a congressional hearing. The Indianapolis-based insurer also paid compensation of at least $1 million apiece to 39 executives in 2008 and spent $27 million over two years on executive getaways, Waxman said, citing documents obtained by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
But, but the hikes are needed to keep up with medical expenses, insists the poor put upon insurer. The company made $4.75 Billion last year and
the insurer said its previous earnings forecast of at least $6 a share was now subject to the “ability to secure and maintain sufficient premium rates.”
Or to put it in English, if you don't give us the hike, we can't produce the profit we promised to Wall St and they will beat our stock like a red headed step-child. Boy O Boy will our executives be mad if that happens.

// posted by montag @ 2:03 PM
Comments:
I think someone should publish each and every one of those exec's names in their home communities.

Let the chips fall where they may.

S
________
# posted by Blogger Cirze : 5:34 PM
 

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