10 Questions to Ask AHIP About Their Health Care Reform Proposal
“We will not sacrifice profitability for membership.”
- Angela Braly, WellPoint CEO in a conference with investment analysts, April 2008
Washington, DC – In anticipation of Wednesday morning’s AHIP press conference during which the health insurance industry front group plans to unveil its plans for health care reform, Health Care For America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign – suggests reporters ask the following 10 questions of Karen Ignagni, President and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans:
1. Will you continue to charge people more for health coverage based on age, gender, and medical condition, and will you raise rates on business and individuals after they or their employees go through costly medical care or become chronically ill?
2. You say that with universal coverage you will accept everyone, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. Are there any qualifiers on that?
3. Will you continue to support high-risk pools which transfer the cost of the most expensive people to the public? If so, why are such pools needed if you are accepting all comers?
4. Will you support the federal government requiring that all health care plans include defined health benefits?
5. The Congressional Budget Office has found that Medicare is paying private insurers 13% more than it costs Medicare’s public plan to provide the same benefits. Will you support giving people a choice of public insurance? And if not, why not?
6. Does your plan require you make your rules – the rules you use to decide whether or not to provide care - public and easily understood?
7. Does your plan limit the amount that insurers may spend on administration, marketing, and profit?
8. Insurance premiums have been rising four times faster than wages while health insurance profits rose more than 1000% from 2001 to 2006. Given this, why should we trust you to control health care costs?
9. The average health insurance company CEO earns $8 million. In recent years, the Aetna CEO earned $57 million, the CIGNA CEO earned $42 million, and executives at WellPoint made more than $150 million in gains. Will you agree to limit CEO compensation as part of your health insurance reform proposal?
10. How much of the money you make from health insurance premiums are you spending now or planning to spend on lobbying and other efforts to influence the debate on health care?
- Angela Braly, WellPoint CEO in a conference with investment analysts, April 2008
Washington, DC – In anticipation of Wednesday morning’s AHIP press conference during which the health insurance industry front group plans to unveil its plans for health care reform, Health Care For America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign – suggests reporters ask the following 10 questions of Karen Ignagni, President and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans:
1. Will you continue to charge people more for health coverage based on age, gender, and medical condition, and will you raise rates on business and individuals after they or their employees go through costly medical care or become chronically ill?
2. You say that with universal coverage you will accept everyone, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. Are there any qualifiers on that?
3. Will you continue to support high-risk pools which transfer the cost of the most expensive people to the public? If so, why are such pools needed if you are accepting all comers?
4. Will you support the federal government requiring that all health care plans include defined health benefits?
5. The Congressional Budget Office has found that Medicare is paying private insurers 13% more than it costs Medicare’s public plan to provide the same benefits. Will you support giving people a choice of public insurance? And if not, why not?
6. Does your plan require you make your rules – the rules you use to decide whether or not to provide care - public and easily understood?
7. Does your plan limit the amount that insurers may spend on administration, marketing, and profit?
8. Insurance premiums have been rising four times faster than wages while health insurance profits rose more than 1000% from 2001 to 2006. Given this, why should we trust you to control health care costs?
9. The average health insurance company CEO earns $8 million. In recent years, the Aetna CEO earned $57 million, the CIGNA CEO earned $42 million, and executives at WellPoint made more than $150 million in gains. Will you agree to limit CEO compensation as part of your health insurance reform proposal?
10. How much of the money you make from health insurance premiums are you spending now or planning to spend on lobbying and other efforts to influence the debate on health care?
