Former Healthcare executive who back in 2008 resigned from his position to become a Whistleblower. And today, Wendell Potter speaks out on latest attempted Mega-megers which if approved would reduce from 5 to only three the number of main healthcare insurers in the U.S.! He writes in part:

“Executives of the firms involved in the proposed deals have insisted that consumers will benefit [from more Mega-mergers] in the form of lower premiums, despite historical evidence that insurance industry mergers have actually resulted in just the opposite: higher premiums. While it’s true the companies that emerged from previous acquisitions were able to force doctors and hospitals to accept lower reimbursement, the insurers pocketed the savings instead of passing them along to their customers.“

The AMA’s concern, of course, is that the same thing will happen if the Justice Department approves the Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna deals and the health insurance marketplace becomes even more dominated by big for-profit insurers.

At the Sept. 10 House hearing, the AMA reminded lawmakers of a Justice Department guideline that a merger enhances corporate leverage “if it is likely to encourage one or more firms to raise price, reduce output, diminish innovation, or otherwise harm customers as a result of diminished competitive constraints or incentives.”

In Potter’s analysis, “the Aetna and Anthem CEOs to dispute the AMA’s contentions, and we probably can expect the members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights to ask mostly softball questions. That’s because the companies’ political action committees have been generous to several members of the subcommittee”

And remember the phrase “revolving door”? check this out:

Aetna has expanded its stable of lobbyists this year to include six K Street firms: Bloom Strategic Counsel, CGCN Group, The Gibson Group and West Front Strategies, Capitol Hill Consulting Group and Sidley Austin.

Those were strategic hires. Seth Bloom of Bloom Strategic Counsel, for example, is the former top lawyer for the Senate subcommittee that Aetna’s Bertolini will appear before this week. And Joseph Gibson of the Gibson Group previously served as the chief minority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee.

Potter points out that:

Meanwhile, keep in mind that all the money Aetna and the other insurers are spending on lobbying is not just intended to influence Congress. The real lobbying focus will be on persuading Justice Department officials to approve the acquisitions.

Full article by Potter is on the website of the Center for Public Integrity, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, this story is at:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/21/18019/insurers-using-lobbying-muscle-campaign-cash-push-mergers

“Corporate America”

by Boston

(same group that did More than a feeling,

Peace of mind) lyrics from 2002 album:

Who can stop de-evolution of the human race?
Look at you, Corporate America, you’re in disgrace
Globalize; cigarettes, business jets, you love it
Maximize; but you can take your bottom line and shove it

-quote added by EconDemocracy

Wendell Potter is the author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans and Obamacare: What’s in It for Me? What Everyone Needs to Know About the Affordable Care Act.

Stories in this series

Insurers using lobbying muscle, campaign cash to push mergers

Insurers say private Medicare plans are better, but we really don’t know

Merger of health insurers usually leads to big payday for executives

Health insurers working the system to pad their profits

Privatizing Medicare would create more problems than it solves

Latest swing of revolving door puts former Medicare czar in charge of health insurance lobby

GOP myth: Obamacare is driving insurance mergers

Coming health insurance mergers will cost consumers

Insurers’ arguments key to Supreme Court decision

By Wendell Potter

June 25, 2015

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