Shareholders Move to Curb Extravagant Pay for WellPoint CEO

[Ardent15]

William H. T. Bush-a WellPoint board member and President George H.W. Bush's younger brother -- collapsed at the annual shareholder meeting the other day, just as the health insurer's CEO, Angela Braly, was trying to explain to angry shareholders why profits are up but the company's reputation is in the tank. Thankfully, Bush improved enough to go home from the hospital, but the meeting never recovered. Braly refused to continue after paramedics wheeled Bush out, so she got away without answering any of the tough questions about her company.

Shareholders never got to ask why WellPoint and its Blue Cross plans in 14 states look like a train wreck to 34 million uneasy customers. Before Bush collapsed, the AFL-CIO, Connecticut's public employee retirement system and other shareholders criticized WellPoint for abusing consumers, funding a duplicitous campaign to block health reform, and misusing premium money to give indefensible compensation packages to top executives. In 2009, Braly's pay jumped 51 percent to $13.1 million. Many of us didn't get a raise at all last year. Ten percent didn't even have jobs.

Shareholders at the meeting didn't get answers to some other big questions on the minds of investors. Why did legendary stock picker Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, dump 1.3 million shares (worth about $70 million at today's price) of WellPoint stock during the first quarter. Buffett knows a little bit about money. What's the deal? And what's up with the company's outrageous submission of inaccurate data to get California regulators to permit premium increases as large as 39 percent for individuals this year? And why is the company driven to pursue sleazy policies, like targeting patients with breast cancer for fraud investigations, and then calling President Obama a liar for saying the practice should stop? Is that really in the interest of the owners of $23 billion worth of WellPoint stock? Most investors want WellPoint to make money, not enemies.

Maybe Braly wasn't worried about how things would look because her P.R. team decided shortly before the shareholders meeting to drop plans to webcast the event. Only reporters who attended in person could observe. Just like the health insurer Cigna did at its annual shareholder meeting last month, WellPoint shut out the media to minimize the impact of embarrassing questions.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-rome/shareholders-move-to-curb_b_583060.html

Figures that a Bu$h would fuck up attempts to find out why something sleazy was going on. :grr:

[Ardent15]

1. Self kick

nt