health insurance companies

Students Rally for Single-Payer System in Vermont

By Daniel Staples, Staff Writer Times-Argus (Barre-Montpelier, Vt.), March 27, 2011 MONTPELIER, Vt. — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin spoke before health profession students who gathered Saturday at the Statehouse in support of single-payer health care. The Vermont House passed a version of the universal health care bill, which is being championed…

The Insurers’ Real Agenda for Change

By Wendell Potter for the Huffington Post – The media had lots of health care news to obsess about last week. A federal judge ruled the health care reform law unconstitutional, and Senate Republicans tried in vain to repeal the law. But most of the press paid virtually no attention to a potentially much more…

In Breakaway, Big Health Insurers Seek To Boost Washington Clout

By Bara Vaida for NPR – Five of the nation’s largest health insurance companies are looking to build their own inside-the-Beltway coalition to influence implementation of the new health law and congressional efforts to change it. The companies – Aetna, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare and WellPoint — are shopping around Washington for a public relations firm…

Big health insurers to stop selling new child-only policies

Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc. and others say they will make the move as soon as Thursday when parts of the new healthcare law take effect. They cite potentially huge and unexpected costs for insuring children. By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times – Major health insurance companies in California and other states have decided to…

Action Alert: End WellPoint’s Greed

On May 18th, Dr. Rob Stone plans to deliver a resolution to WellPoint/Anthem, the largest health insurance company in the US, calling for it to return to its charitable, non-profit roots at their upcoming shareholder meeting in Indianapolis. WellPoint, like all health insurance companies in the nation, is a parasitic middleman that enriches its executives…

Nine arrested at sit-in targeting Sen. Schumer

Health professionals, patients demand expansion of Medicare Chanting “55 is not enough, Medicare for all,” 9 protesters were arrested at a sit-in at Sen. Schumer’s office in mid-town Manhattan this morning. Referring to Schumer’s push to lower Medicare age eligibility to 55, advocates for Medicare-for-All state that opening it up to only one portion of…

Between You and Your Doctor: The Bureaucracy of Private Health Insurance

On September 16 and 17, Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) held a two-part hearing entitled, “Between You and Your Doctor: the Bureaucracy of Private Health Insurance.” The hearing examined how the bureaucracy of private health insurance companies affects the medical care of patients. The Subcommittee heard testimony from: Mr. Mark Gendernalik Father of…

Liar, Liar … Well, Healthcare Pants on Fire

By Donna Smith – So, we’ve been told over and over again that under the healthcare reform plans currently defended and pushed by the President and Congress that we can keep what we’ve got if we like it. No one will take your health insurance bennies away. Not under our employer-based, for-profit system. Well, tell…

Bait and switch: How the “public option” was sold

By Kip Sullivan for PNHP – The people who brought us the “public option” began their campaign promising one thing but now promote something entirely different. To make matters worse, they have not told the public they have backpedalled. The campaign for the “public option” resembles the classic bait-and-switch scam: tell your customers you’ve got…

“They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors” (Video)

Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry From Democracy Now – As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour with a former top insurance executive who’s now exposing the industry’s dirty secrets. Wendell Potter once served as the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one…