Corporations

News

Insurers' Bait and Switch

by Wendell Potter — June 30, 2011 - 11:35am
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • More and more Americans are falling victim to one of the most insidious bait-and-switch schemes in U.S. history. As they do, health insurance executives and company shareholders are getting richer and richer. This industry-wide plot explains how health insurers have been able to reap record profits during the recent recession as the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured continue to swell.

    It also explains why the insurance industry and its allies are pulling out all the stops to kill a measure in the California legislature that could protect state residents from losing their homes and being forced into bankruptcy if they get seriously sick or injured.

    On June 2, the California Assembly passed AB 52, a bill that would give state regulators the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate increases. Similar legislation has been introduced in other state legislatures, but nowhere are the stakes higher than in California -- not only because AB 52 would allow the insurance commissioner to turn down requests for unjustifiably high rate hikes, but also because it would enable the commissioner to reject increases in deductibles as well.

    NRC Rubber-Stamps Relicensing for Aging U.S. Nuclear Plants

    by Anne Landman — June 29, 2011 - 1:51pm

    Most nuclear reactors built in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s were explicitly designed to last for 40 years, but an Associated Press investigation shows that owners of aging nuclear plants and their government regulators are now claiming the aging reactors actually have no particular life span, and can even operate for up to 100 years. AP found the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) relicensing rules contain no requirements that operators compensate for wear and tear on their reactors, and that the relicensing process relies heavily on paperwork supplied by operators and very little actual visual inspection of plants. AP also found that the NRC has repeatedly made compromises in plant safety rules, emergency planning and regulations to keep older reactors operating. The NRC's relicensing audits for aging plants often contain "identical or nearly identical word-for-word repetition" of the language supplied by operators in their license renewal applications. Despite the fact that repeated equipment failures have occurred at U.S. nuclear plants, relicensing the plants has become little more than a rote, rubber-stamp procedure. Joe Hopenfeld, a former NRC engineer who worked on issues pertaining to plant aging prior to retiring in 2008, corroborates AP's findings. "Everything I've seen [in regard to relicensing] is rubber-stamped," Hopenfeld confirms.

    Main Source: 
    Associated Press, June 29, 2011
    Op-Ed

    Insurers Spend Big Fighting Regulations, Paying CEOs Huge Salaries

    by Wendell Potter — June 28, 2011 - 12:48pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • Nowhere are health insurers working harder to thwart reforms that could save consumers billions of dollars than in California. One measure they are especially determined to kill is a bill that would give state regulators the authority to reject rate increases that are excessive or discriminatory.

    The California Assembly passed a bill to do just that earlier this month over the intense opposition of insurers, including the state's biggest supposedly nonprofit health plans: Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente.

    News

    Brave New Films Exposes the Koch Echo Chamber

    by Anne Landman — June 22, 2011 - 10:42pm
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Media

    • Over and over, cable TV and Sunday news show pundits have been telling us that Social Security is going bankrupt, and we have to raise the retirement age or the economy will collapse. These two axioms have practically become common knowledge. The only problem is, there isn't a shred of evidence that either statement is accurate.

    Editorial

    Employment-Based Health Insurance Fails America

    by Wendell Potter — June 21, 2011 - 1:22pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • If you haven't gotten much of a raise lately, it's probably because the extra money that might have been put in your paycheck instead went to your health insurer if you are enrolled in an employer-sponsored plan.

    Many Americans haven't seen a pay increase of any kind because their employers can't both increase their wages and continue offering decent health care coverage. It has become an either-or for people like Zeke Zalaski, a factory worker in Bristol, Connecticut, who hasn't had a raise in years.

    Editorial

    The Decline of Employer-Based Health Insurance

    by Wendell Potter — June 17, 2011 - 12:43pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • The global consulting firm McKinsey & Company set off a firestorm when it released a report last week suggesting that 30 percent of U.S. businesses will stop offering health care benefits to their employees after most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect in 2014.

    The White House was quick to challenge the validity of the report, noting that McKinsey has so far refused to provide any details of the methodology used to reach its conclusion. All McKinsey will say is that its report was based on a survey of 1,300 employers and "other proprietary research."

    White House deputy chief of staff Nancy-Ann DeParle, who previously headed the president's office of health care reform, called it an "outlier" and cited other studies predicting that few if any employers would drop coverage because of the Affordable Health Care Act.

    News

    Wisconsin State Senate Passes Budget in Party-Line Vote

    by Eric Carlson — June 16, 2011 - 8:08pm
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Democracy, Labor, Wisconsin Protests

    • The Wisconsin State Senate passed the Assembly's version of the budget late Thursday night after nine hours of spirited debate, sending the $66 billion spending plan to Governor Walker for his signature.

    The Republican-controlled Senate approved the measure 19-14 along strictly partisan lines. Lawmakers debated late into the evening amid audible reactions from gallery spectators and a boisterous rally on the front steps of the Capitol. Several audience members in the Senate chamber were removed during the course of the debate for disrupting the legislative session.

    U.S. Chamber to Kick Off Star-Studded, Anti-Regulation Road Show

    by Anne Landman — June 16, 2011 - 3:00pm

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has enlisted Andrew Card, former White House Chief of Staff under President Bush, and Democratic former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh for a national "road show" to rally businesses to oppose government regulations. Communications for the road show are being handled by Chamber employee Thomas Collamore, who formerly was vice president of Philip Morris Corporate Affairs -- the department that was responsible for thwarting local, state and national policies to reduce tobacco use. The Chamber plans to formally announce the Bayh and Card road show on June 22, 2011, and then will start flying the two around the country to gather support for rolling back regulations designed to protect the environment, consumers and workers. A June 2 memo to the Chamber's Board of Directors says the two will give speeches, and attend events and media appearances at local venues across the country. The Chamber's effort is aimed at fighting the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, minimizing the power of the recently-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, blocking OSHA workplace safety and health programs, hampering employees' ability to join unions and other pro-business reforms. The Chamber has spent months soliciting millions of dollars in funding from Wall Street financial firms, insurance and energy companies for this anti-regulatory effort.

    Main Source: 
    IWatchnews.org, June 7, 2011
    News

    Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Union-Busting, Betrays Judicial Principles

    by Brendan Fischer — June 15, 2011 - 1:51pm
  • Topics: Activism, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Democracy, Labor, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • In the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision reinstating Governor Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining plan, the Court's conservative majority not only neutered the Open Meetings Law, but in its rush to make a decision before legislative Republicans acted on threats, the Court overreached and potentially eviscerated the meaning of Article IV, Section 10 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

    News

    Thousands Protest at Capitol Against Walker Budget, Supreme Court Ruling

    by Eric Carlson — June 15, 2011 - 1:23am
  • Topics: Corporations, Democracy, Economy, Labor, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • Crowds of protesters who flocked to the Wisconsin state Capitol June 14 anticipating Assembly action on the divisive collective bargaining bill, which essentially eliminates collective bargaining for public workers, were shocked to learn the Supreme Court had reinstated the law in a hotly contested 4-3 decision.

    Speakers at a planned 5:00 p.m. rally were quick to lift the faltering spirits of the Wisconsin Democracy Movement. Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, told the crowd of thousands, "We're going to be here every day. We didn't pick this fight, but if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they're going to get."

    Syndicate content