( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Oh, those charming folks at Aetna.
http://www.legitgov.org/price_…
Wednesday, the same day as the National Association of Free Clinics held their latest clinic at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, which took care of a thousand uninsured people who needed a doctor but couldn’t afford it, the same city in which Aetna is based, Aetna Insurance announced they were laying off 100 more employees. The company previously laid off 160 in November 2009, and is planning to cut at least 625 nationwide.
Catch the excuse given below:
Part of the reason, company officials said, are declining membership and the state of the economy.
Declining membership? And why, pray tell, is membership declining ?
This is part of the insurance giant’s larger scheme to force 650,000 human beings off their insurance rolls this year, to enhance their bottom line. Aetna, which covers about 17.7 million people, is one of the largest private health insurers. The combination of layoffs and cutting clients, plus rate hikes this year, should get the company back to a “more profitable level,” according to a Dec 4 2009 story by Sam Stein. According to Aetna’s CEO Ron Williams,
“The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering,” said chairman and CEO Ron Williams. “We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year.”
/snip
Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Ed Shultz, yesterday in Hartford, about the Free Clinic:
“I don’t know what they are doing in Washington.
I know that there aren’t any house members here and there aren’t any senators here. And I can tell you one piece of information here in Connecticut, the house and the senate passed Universal care for everyone and the governor vetoed it. The public option in this state polls overwhelmingly well, but in Washington, Joe Lieberman, not only is he not here tonite, but he’s against the public option.7:17 minutes: I could look Joe Lieberman in the eye, and Senator, I don’t care if it costs me my job, I don’t care, you are a coward. ”
Back on Dec 21, 2009, Lieberman, a Senator of no party affiliation except himself, from Connecticut, claimed that he couldn’t remember any sort of national health care plan as a campaign plank, and said that the White House did not pressure him to not filibuster a public option or an early Medicare buy in, both of which were later scrapped out of the Senate version of the bill.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
According to this video, about 11% of Connecticut citizens can’t afford health insurance. Out of a population of about 3.5 million, that would be about 385,000, or about 7 sports stadiums completely filled with people.
Lieberman isn’t a coward. He’s merely an opportunist. It remains to be seen how much longer the Democratic Party keeps on begging for the abuse, because of the special election in Massachusetts, and the loss of a Senate seat and the magical veto proof majority, he can’t be kingmaker any more.
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…. in all his Teabaggery goodness.
staffing a free clinic in Hartford – What ever happened to the concept of shame – How can these people walk around with their heads up.
The noise, as you know ARC, on tv and print and rightwing blogs is constantly the deficit and Medicare and SS. It has to be done. When Bayh was declaring “hard choices to be made – politicians need courage” – we know what he meant: Get rid of Medicare or make it so weak as to be useless. (There is never any follow up from the stenographers such as: Do you think it is ethical for a wife of a senator to be sitting on a board of an insurance concern or any kind of healthcare corporation?) Note that no one is pushing back on this new meme – no one. Billyblog calls the deficit talk “weapons of mass destruction” talk.
Despicable weasel – they all are.
Why are Americans so docile? Is it because we don’t believe we deserve anything? Is it because of the old saw: If you can’t make it in America – it’s your fault.