Health Insurance Giant Aetna Paying $80,000 For Health Reform ‘Town Hall’ Moderated By CNN Host Tony Harris

Tomorrow, health insurance giant Aetna is sponsoring a “town hall conversation on the national health system reform debate” at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. CNN anchor Tony Harris will moderate the panel, which features lobbyists from the health insurance industry and opponents of reform

According to FAIR, CNN has corporate relationships with AIG, Health Cap, and Paratek Pharmaceuticals. I don't think they were ever going to do any honest reporting.

I pray the progressives wake up soon and come out of their collective slumber before we help the Democrats pass a health insurance bail out. The reforms championed two years ago, that rested largely on providing Americans with a Medicare-like plan, open to all takers, has morphed into Romney Care. While the centerpiece progressives envisioned on health care reform rested largely on federal intervention via program, the Democrats have cleary gone the less contentious route of a federal roll via regulation. The idea seems to be create a federal role, and hopefully tighten regulations later down the road, which is laughable.

Digby links this excellent reporting on the pay for parasites:

* United Health Group
CEO: William W McGuire
2005: 124.8 mil
5-year: 342 mil

* Forest Labs
CEO: Howard Solomon
2005: 92.1 mil
5-year: 295 mil

* Caremark Rx
CEO: Edwin M Crawford
2005: 77.9 mil
5-year: 93.6 mil

* Abbott Lab
CEO: Miles White
2005: 26.2 mil

Aetna Posts Loss of $326.5 Million on Debt Securities in ‘08

At least Aetna has company–everybody in the sector seems to have been stung by the crisis, from Humana’s investment losses to UnitedHealth’s write-down on its venture capital program.

Obviously these were not appropriate investments for health insurance companies. Combine this with a collapsing premium base as more and more people are layed off, and more and more employers ceasing to offer health insurance, and you have an imploding business model.

Ceci Connolly has an article entitled, U.S. 'Not Getting What We Pay For': Many Experts Say Health-Care System Inefficient, Wasteful, where she quotes, without irony, all the parasites of our health neglect system.

First a few words about Ceci Connolly; if you read The Daily Howler, you know that more than any other member of the celebrity press corps, she is responsible for smearing Al Gore and giving us Bush. An example of her notion of humor:
Smile-a-while (10/3/00)

Caught by a Change in Health Care

She needs these machines and others because she has spinal muscular atrophy type 2, a disease that weakens muscles throughout her body. She also needs nursing care 12 hours a day.

Without the nurses, her parents, Philomena (aka Phil) and John Rogers, who is the chief information officer at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, would be in a very tough spot. The outside assistance, covered by their federal Aetna health insurance policy, means better care for Shelby and a more normal life for her parents and three sisters.

Unhealthy insurers

US health insurers, already feeling unwell at the prospect of a Barack Obama presidency, had their condition further downgraded this past week as the financial crisis hit earnings. While the patient has suffered a bit of a shock, the prognosis is better than the average 61 per cent drop over the past year in the shares of six leading managed-care companies would suggest.

One couple with chronic conditions struggles with high premiums and high co-pays

Retiree Hires Attorney to Keep Her Coverage

“I was promised lifetime insurance by my employer (USA Today). In May, my employer farmed out billing to Aetna and refused to take my check,” said Coline George of Camarillo, California. “Aetna had no record of me. The only informed person I talked to said that Aetna only did my employer's COBRA account.” ...

Karen George is in extreme pain, taking "daily doses of Klonopin, Flexeril, and Lortab", but Aetna won't cover surgery to correct her disconnected jawbone, because it is "cosmetic".

Now that I have your attention, I want to change the subject from bashing Aetna.

At American Medical News, a website of the American Medical Association, Emily Berry does some pretty good low-flying snark as she reports on the latest marketing ploys of "health plans":

Health plans are on a marketing mission. They "want you to know" how to "thrive" by turning to them for "guidance when you need it most" because "it's time to feel better," and their business is "helping people live healthier lives."

...

The Medical Quack explains some of the ins and outs of the insanity induced in our health "care" system by corporate bureaucracy. To try to sum up a bizarre situation, it seems the HMOs want to reward or punish doctors based on their effectiveness at getting patients to take their medication. The purchase of $4 generic prescription drugs through outfits like Wal-Mart destroys the paper trail that makes it possible to apply the incentives. So there are some efforts by the bureaucrats to get this information out of the patients:

or, Why Does Aetna Hate Ruth Kaufman's Toe?

There are two strands here: denial of care, and lack of transparency.

My health insurance, for which I pay $395 per month, will not cover the foot surgery my doctor says I need: a toe joint replacement that is supposed to last 20 years and which will restore mobility and reduce pain.

According to Market Watch, Aetna CEO Ronald Williams "earned" nearly $43 million in total compensation in 2007. The census bureau set the 2007 poverty line for a single person at $9944 (over 65) or $10,787 (under 65); let's just call it a nice round $10,000.

Meanwhile, this painter/sculptor might dispute the use of the word "earned" in the Market Watch story:

My very own corporate parasite, Aetna, is losing the battle for public opinion in the pages of New Jersey's Bridgeton News. In a story on the reaction to Aetna's decision to drop The Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) of Cumberland County from its network, Andrea Scapellato, whose husband has been depending on CDI for regular ultrasounds, is quoted:

"First you have to pay for insurance, and then you can't even go where you want to go," she said. "We live in the United States, not communist China or Russia."

Stock prices of Aetna and other health insurers are up. How nice for them and their shareholders.

Meanwhile, the lowly life-forms who actually need health care abandon all hope in the health (couldn't) care (less) system:

Why was Caitlin White's $113,000 brain surgery delayed for more than two months? Would she ever have had the surgery without the intervention of TV news?

It's really not clear from the linked story, but this much is clear: Caitlin's mother believes the "claim came in too late" for her to have the surgery scheduled for May. She also believes that the insurer denied coverage altogether when she rescheduled the surgery. The insurer, Aetna, disputes the circumstances, but according to the story it took pressure from a local TV station and a four-day investigation to get Aetna to "change its tune" and "partner" with Tampa General Hospital to fully cover the costs.

N.Y. AG Prescribes Subpoenas to UnitedHealth Group, Others

The nation's largest health care insurer, four of its subsidiaries and a number of other large insurers are being served subpoenas -- 16 in all -- in a suit to be brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that charges the companies used "rigged data to manipulate the reimbursement rate to their customers who filed claims."

At the center of the scheme, according to the attorney general, is Ingenix, Inc., "the nation's largest provider of health care billing information, which serves as a conduit for rigged data to the largest insurers in the country."

Let's talk about corporate greed. It is worse than you thought. We know that these companies make money by collecting premiums and then denying care. The question is, money for who? Let's look at their insider trades:
Cigna's board of directors and chief corporate officers collectively dumped 129,499 shares of Cigna stock. I tried to add that up to what it would be in dollars, got as far as $17,342,224. That is in addition to their very high salary. How much health care could your municipality buy with $17 million dollars?

UnitedHealth CEO paid $13.1M in 2007

UnitedHealth Group Inc. CEO Stephen Hemsley received compensation valued at $13.1 million in 2007, down from the $15.5 million he got in 2006.

According to documents filed with the SEC, Hemsley received a base salary of $1.3 million in 2007, up from $1 million in 2006. He also got stock options awards valued at $8.1 million in 2007, less than the $11.3 million he got in 2006.

His compensation also included $3.6 million in cash incentives, up from $2.8 in the previous year.