This is a response to Bennie Hively's letter "Money Over Health." I'm curious where you got your information.
In your letter you claimed that WellPoint spent over $10 million in 2009 on lobbying against healthcare reform. OpenSecrets.org, an organization that tracks political spending, shows that WellPoint's total lobbying expenditures in 2008 and 2009 combined were less than $10 million. That same site shows that each year, the maximum number of lobbyists WellPoint has employed is 5 in any given year.In your letter you also stated that "nearly a third of all health care costs are associated with wasteful administration" and that they amount to "more than $350 million a year, enough to pay for the whole universal health care plan." The cost of the healthcare bill the President signed was $940 billion over 10 years, making that $94 billion per year, a far cry from the $350 million you say would pay for the universal healthcare plan.
Also, you claimed that UnitedHealth Group's CEO Stephen Hemsley made over $100,000 per hour in 2009, unless that was a misprint in the Times-Union online edition. Forbes.com, a very reputable source read by hundreds of thousands of people, shows that including salary, bonuses and other benefits, Mr Hemsley made just over $2,400 per hour in 2009. Million dollar bonuses from billion dollar companies are pocket change. They are usually based on performance of the company and would very rarely, if ever, affect your health insurance rates.
I will run out of space if I keep refuting the claims you made in your letter, so I will end with this. Americans need to quit blaming the health insurance companies for everything. It's partially their fault, but not all. In 1985 not a single state had an obesity rate of over 14 percent. In 2008, six states had an obesity rate of over 30 percent. Americans aren't taking care of themselves, therefore healthcare costs are increasing because more people are having health issues. For that matter, I myself fit the definition of obese. What am I doing about it? Exercising and eating healthier. Not complaining about how expensive health insurance is.
To blame the health insurance companies solely for higher healthcare costs would be like blaming McDonald's for raising their price on a Big Mac because their suppliers' costs went up. It's ludicrous.
I support healthcare reform, but in a fiscally responsible way and in a way that will help every American. This bill did neither of those. It cost the U.S. a trillion dollars in one of the worst economic recessions in history and helped very few Americans in the process.
