WellPoint shows why we need insurance reform
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 02/18/2010
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For the good of Indiana, our political leaders must stop bickering, dawdling and obstructing the completion of insurance reform legislation.
The Indianapolis-based health insurance company WellPoint is hiking up some insurance premiums by as much as 38 percent. These premium increases that financially devastate middle class families are the precise reason our lawmakers should stop peckering around with reform in regard to health care.
WellPoint acknowledged to the Indianapolis Star that people should expect premium increases on individual plans in Indiana. This has perplexed many Indiana residents because as the nation’s largest commercial insurer in terms of membership, WellPoint posted a $4.75 billion profit in 2009 according to its financial reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The same report found the company had cut the proportion of premiums it spent on its customers’ medical care while funneling more to salaries and administrative expenses.
According to the Huffington Post, a House investigation found that WellPoint’s CEO, Angela Braly, was rewarding employees for finding creative new ways to drop existing policyholders who developed expensive conditions. She made $10 million in the year she created this reward system.
The increase in profit came as WellPoint dropped or lost 1.4 million customers. And as more people are forced to drop their insurance coverage due to soaring costs, health insurance companies increase their premiums even more to recoup the loss in profits.
WellPoint is not alone in instituting these inexplicably ridiculous premium hikes, and it makes it hard for the average American to find a different insurance company to cover ailments at a time when everyone is struggling to keep a balanced checkbook. Our leaders must act quickly to check these companies that seem to lack a conscience and have an abundance of greed. It has become apparent that the U.S. needs some kind of public option, or at least insurance companies need more restrictions.