Aetna

Why Health Insurers Are Counting on the Supreme Court to Uphold ObamaCare

Wendell Potter | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Obamacare, Ahip, Obamacare Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act, Cigna, Aetna, Health Care Supreme Court, Health Care Reform, Health Care, Obama Health Care Reform, Politics News

If there is a group of people more anxious about how the Supreme Court will rule on the health care reform law than President Obama and the millions of Americans who are already benefiting from it, it is health insurance executives.

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Coming Soon: The End of Health Insurers As We Know Them -- By Self-Inflicted Wounds

Wendell Potter | Posted 05.05.2012

Read More: Obamacare, Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Cigna, Health Insurance, Aetna, Humana, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Mark Bertolini, Insurance, Politics News

Now you know why more than 50 million of us are uninsured. It is not because most of those people are being irresponsible. Most of them either can't afford to buy coverage or can't buy it at any price.

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Taking the Initiative in a Struggle Against Excessive Rate Increases

Wendell Potter | Posted 04.21.2012

Read More: California-Healthcare-Foundation, Unitedhealth, Dave Jones, California, Obamacare, Consumer Watchdog, Dianne Feinstein, Affordable Care Act, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Wellpoint, Health Insurance Rate Increases, Rate Increases Health Insurance, California Health Insurance Rate Increases, Politics News

When insurers behave this way, they are demonstrating that they care more about their bottom lines than their policyholders. Which makes it all the more imperative for California voters to sign those petitions and vote for the ballot initiative this fall.

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The Battle for Vermont's Health -- And Why It Matters for the Rest of the Country

Wendell Potter | Posted 04.08.2012

Read More: Canadian Healthcare, Peter Shumlin, Unitedhealth, Obamacare, Michael Moore, Vermont, Health Care Reform, Sicko, Cigna, Single Payer, Aetna, Canada, Wellpoint, Politics News

Despite the ceaseless spin, Vermont lawmakers last May demonstrated they could not be bought nor intimidated when they became the first in the nation to pass a bill that will probably establish a single-payer beachhead in the U.S.

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High-Tech Start-Up Focus: Flite's 'Agile Marketing Platform'

Bill_Robinson | Posted 03.31.2012

Read More: Charles Schwab, Marriott, Microsoft, Intel, Tostitos, Starcom, General Mills, Fedex, Adweek, Paramount Pictures, Toyota, Best Buy, Cnet, Cisco, Publicis, Yahoo, Sony, Coca-Cola, Hummer Winblad, Dell, General Catalyst Partners, Sequoia Capital, Mediavest, Digitas, Aetna, Sybase, Loreal, Ibm, Google, Flite, Small Business America, Small Business News

One of the most crucial elements of any high-tech start-up's survival -- much less evolution -- is the money backing the enterprise. Is it 'smart money?' Is it 'patient money?' Is it 'connected money?'

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Mitt Romney's Health Care Fantasy World

Wendell Potter | Posted 03.17.2012

Read More: Obamacare, Bain Capital, Mitt Romney, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, Aetna, Health Care, Politics News

Obamacare haters try to make us believe that the law will reduce "choice and competition" -- that insurers are competing vigorously to sign up Americans. But the world of health insurance doesn't operate that way -- and it never will without intervention.

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Insurer Profits Are Up In The Wake Of Health Care Law They Opposed

The Huffington Post | Alexander Eichler | Posted 01.06.2012

Read More: Congress, Unitedhealth, Health Care Profits, Cigna, Health Insurance, Insurance Companies, Aetna, Humana, Obama Health Care, Barack Obama, Video, Insurance, Health Care Reform, Health Coverage, Health Care, Wellpoint, Health Care Industry, Business News

Since insurance companies undertook extensive lobbying efforts against health care reform -- spending millions in an attempt to derail the legislation...

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OK White House, Now Give Consumers Some Quality Time to Talk Health Care

Wendell Potter | Posted 02.01.2012

Read More: Jay Rockefeller, Obamacare, Health Care Reform, Rosa DeLauro, Hhs, Cigna, Aetna, Cass Sunstein, Medical-Loss Ratio, Mlr, Politics News

The administration should pay far more attention to what they have to say than to executives and lobbyists for Aetna and the rest of the industry who, take it from me, are more interested in their own best interests than in their customers.

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Insurers Pressuring Obama to Defy Law So They Can Continue Keeping You in the Dark

Wendell Potter | Posted 12.31.2011

Read More: Consumers Union, Unitedhealth, Obamacare, Ahip, Health Care Reform, Chamber of Commerce, Cigna, Healthcare Reform, Aetna, Health Care, Humana, Consumer Reports, Wellpoint, Politics News

If you have no idea what you're paying good money for when you enroll in a health insurance plan, there's a good reason for that: insurers profit from your ignorance. And they're waging an intense behind-the-scenes campaign to keep you in the dark.

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Insurers Plotting How to Circumvent Reform So They Can Continue Selling Junk Health Insurance

Wendell Potter | Posted 12.24.2011

Read More: Unitedhealth, Obamacare, Health Care Reform, Anthem Blue Cross, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Politics News

If the White House caves in to insurance industry demands, millions of low-wage earners will be forced to buy junk coverage on January 1, 2014. If you don't want to be forced to buy junk, send the White House a message. Now.

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Insurers' Allies in Congress Trying to Dismantle Reform Piece by Piece

Wendell Potter | Posted 11.15.2011

Read More: Congress, Wall Street, Obamacare, Lobbyists, Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Aetna, Democrats, Health Care, Obama Health Care, Republicans, Politics News

House Republicans, unable to repeal the health care reform law outright, have decided to go after it piece by piece. If they are successful, what's likely to remain is the kind of reform the insurance industry dreamed of but never really thought could be the law of the land.

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Fresh Evidence That Health Insurers Value Profits Over People

Wendell Potter | Posted 10.01.2011

Read More: Uninsured, Unitedhealth, Health Care Reform, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Health Care, Wellpoint, Business News

WellPoint and Aetna and other insurers have demonstrated repeatedly that while they will do all they can to avoid sacrificing profitability for membership, they are quite willing to sacrifice their members -- and the American public -- for profits.

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Got Health Insurance? Pray You Won't Get "Purged"

Wendell Potter | Posted 07.16.2011

Read More: Small Business, Uninsured, Unitedhealth, National-Small-Business-Association, Health Care Reform, Cigna, Health Insurance, Aetna, Small Business America, Business News

For several years now, insurance companies have been "purging" small business accounts they no longer consider profitable. Meanwhile, U.S. health insurers are reporting record profits, and their CEOs are topping the list of highest paid corporate executives.

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States Loosen Insurance Rules To Woo Business

The New York Times | MARY WILLIAMS WALSH and LOUISE STORY | Posted 07.09.2011

Read More: Deutsche Bank, Insurance Captive, Insurance, South Carolina, Vermont, Aig, Delaware, Metlife, Hawaii, Captives, Aetna, Offshore Transactions, Insurance States, Utah, Business News

Companies looking to do business in secret once had to travel to places like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Today, all it takes is a trip to Vermon...

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Ryan's Medicare Plan Would Be a Windfall for Insurance Companies

Wendell Potter | Posted 06.21.2011

Read More: Jacob Hacker, Edward Hanway, Cigna, Medicare, Aetna, Kaiser Family Foundation, Paul Ryan, Politics News

Paul Ryan's "blueprint" is one that will take America back to the pre-1965 days when senior citizens were losing their homes and their farms to pay for medical care. And all the while, insurance companies will be raking it in.

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Insurers' Cynical Calculations on the Cost of Doing Business

Wendell Potter | Posted 05.31.2011

Read More: State-Insurance-Regulators, Health Net, Unitedhealth, Anthem Blue Cross, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Cigna, Health Insurance, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Business News

The next time you hear a politician say that reducing regulations and allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines would go a long way toward controlling health care costs, think of the real, much higher cost of such a solution.

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The False Promise and Big Profits of 'Mini-Med' Health Plans

Wendell Potter | Posted 05.28.2011

Read More: Senate, Commonwealth Fund, Obamacare, Stephanie Cutter, Health Care Reform, Hhs, Cigna, Health Insurance, Health and Human Services, Aetna, Health Care, Barack Obama, Consumer Reports, Politics News

One of the reasons I left my job as a PR executive for the health insurance industry was because I could not in good conscience be a pitchman for the sort of fabulously profitable benefit plan that often provides little more than the illusion of coverage.

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