Shareholder Revolt At Health Insurance Giant

Washington Post:

Health insurance giant WellPoint is the latest target of an increasingly aggressive campaign to force disclosure of corporate political and lobbying expenditures, including payments to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has become more active in elections over the past decade.

Read the whole story at Washington Post

Comments

[K August]

02:07 AM on 04/20/2012

We, the People folks! DO NOT FORGET !

Corporations that go public MUST be held to account for their bad behavior!

[K August]

02:00 AM on 04/20/2012

"The shareholder coalition cited WellPoint’s reluctance to answer questions about a transfer of $86 million from the health insurers trade association to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010"

86 Million that should have gone into paying for health care!

Can you imagine what will happen when these companies get their hands on Medicare?
They'll get thousands from subsides while they spend millions on CEO pay, shareholder profits and as Little As Possible on actual health care of Tens of Millions of Seniors!

[joncavanaugh]

08:02 PM on 04/19/2012

Wellpoint-where 52 cents of every dollar you pay goes to healthcare costs. The rest goes to paying the company.

[beartrack]

07:50 PM on 04/19/2012

Just shows that these outfits not only lie to and abuse their customers but, they lie to their own investors too. This is the lack of character in this class of people that has gotten this country into this. More of these investors need to clean house.

[Vapula]

06:36 PM on 04/19/2012

The shareholders own the company not he Board of Directors. If the Board want to misuse company funds and breach their fiduciary duties they should be forced to personally repay money which they have stolen from the company.

[neolow]

05:13 PM on 04/19/2012

I went to WellPoint's site. They donate very heavily to the Republicans both on the state (many states) and federal level. The Chamber of Commerce says: “This is part of a coordinated effort by the left to silence the business community and create one-sided debates..." No, this is how we create discourse. If we perceive companies to be lobbying against our interests, we should have a right to confront them. At that point, the company can explain its actions and open up a discourse. This is just another method to socialize risk and personalize wealth with no accountability.

[feelingdisposable]

05:09 PM on 04/19/2012

Well done, shareholders! I sincerely hope that more shareholders of more companies will be doing this very thing. If the companies weren't spending so much money on lobbyists, the shareholder dividends would be much bigger, not to mention that a lot of the behind-closed-doors lobbying is not for the common good.

[cadawa]

04:07 PM on 04/19/2012

This is good news. The more pressure we put on public companies to operate in the public interest, the better. It's the government's job but since it is AWOL I guess it's up to us.

[jeffhintx]

03:57 PM on 04/19/2012

Ramp it up and spread it around. ALL the health insurance companies need to hear from their stockholders.

[mikehart]

03:43 PM on 04/19/2012

My oh My, i gaining back my faith in The People!

[Captain Hindsight]

02:34 PM on 04/19/2012

What's up with uppity shareholders? Do they think they own the company or something?

[K August]

02:05 AM on 04/20/2012

YES they do via their shares of company stock....... the CEO's don't own it and when they are spending money and NOT being upfront about it.......they need to answer to their shareholders!

[clearasmud]

01:57 PM on 04/19/2012

The Well Point CEO was the highest paid CEO, of ALL corporations, in 2011.

[Anne Rutherford]

01:25 PM on 04/19/2012

Since this is paid for with your premium dollars, I think the shareholders have a right to say enough is enough. The are owners in the company. I can only hope that more investors demand this information.