Two House Democrats Seek Information From Insurers

[meme]

By NAFTALI BENDAVID and AVERY JOHNSON
WASHINGTON -- Two powerful House Democrats have sent a letter to insurance companies asking them to provide detailed information about their conferences and retreats, executive pay, and other business practices.

The letter comes in the midst of a campaign by Democrats, as part of their push to build support for a health overhaul, to portray the insurance companies as the villains of the health-care system. Insurers say they are working with Congress on an overhaul and resent being cast as the bad guy.

The letter is from Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), who heads the panel's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Waxman is the Democrats' point man in the House on the politically volatile health overhaul, and recently shepherded a bill through his committee. Mr. Stupak, however, has said he wants to be sure the Democrats' plan does not cover abortions, and he voted against it in committee.

The letter, sent Monday, did not refer to the health overhaul debate, saying only that the committee "is examining executive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry." The letter requests the companies' help, but is not a subpoena.

Chris Curran, a spokesman for Cigna Corp., said the company had not yet received a letter from Mr. Waxman, but like the rest of the industry, expects to get one shortly. He said the company planned to respond appropriately.

Mr. Curran defended the company's executive compensation program, saying it is designed to reward executives and attract talent, and added that more than 90% of the compensation of Cigna's CEO is performance-based.

Much of the information requested in the letter is available in public documents, Mr. Curran added, and the company has no problem turning it over.

A spokesman for another company, Don Nathan of UnitedHealth Group, confirmed that his firm had received the letter, but would not say how it plans to respond.


Henry Waxman
Mr. Waxman has a long history of using Congress's investigative powers to turn a critical eye on industry and government. Late last year he ousted Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.) as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and he has been overseeing legislation on the Democrats' two top priorities, health care and climate change.

As Congress's August recess kicked off, Democrats made it clear they would respond to Republicans' warnings about government intervening in patients' private medical decisions by arguing that insurers already do so. Top Democrats have blasted the insurance industry, and they now refer to their initiative as "health-insurance reform" rather than "health reform."

Insurers have so far responded in measured fashion to the attacks, insisting that they are on board with an overhaul and saying that demonizing them does nothing to move the discussion forward.

The Waxman-Stupak letter asks companies to provide, by mid-September, the compensation packages of any employee or officer who made more than $500,000 in any year from 2003 to 2008. It also asks the companies to list all their board members and their compensation.

The congressmen also want information "listing all conferences, retreats or other events held outside company facilities from January 1, 2007, to the present."

In addition, the letter demands more basic information, such as the companies' total revenues, net income, and total dividend payments, as well as premium revenue, sales expenses and profits.

Mr. Waxman couldn't be reached for comment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125063757780841555.html

[SmarterthanYou]

I'm certainly not a fan of insurance companies, but why is this Waxmans business?