While Anthem Blue Cross proposed a 39 percent rate increase on thousands of California customers, its parent company gave 39 executives more than $1 million each and spent more than $27 million on 103 lavish executive retreats, congressional investigators said Wednesday.
In response, WellPoint Chief Executive Angela Braly told a House subcommittee that Anthem Blue Cross' rate increases were necessary to keep the company solvent.
The hearing was part of a daylong, multipronged attack by Democrats against the health-insurance industry, on the eve of President Obama's bipartisan health-care summit.
Elsewhere, the full House voted overwhelmingly to repeal the industry's 65-year-old exemption from federal antitrust oversight, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked the heads of five major insurance companies to meet with her to justify their pricing policies.
Source : http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011178757_healthcare25.html
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