WellPoint exec’s complaint is ironic

In your [Feb. 7] article, “Benefits brokers set for shakeout,” Wayne DeVeydt, chief financial officer of WellPoint, was quoted as saying, “Every year, these brokers were getting an increase for doing nothing,” referring to health insurance premiums rising each year and the brokers’ compensation being based on a percentage of the premium.

Does anyone else see the irony in his statement? It was one year ago that WellPoint tried to push a 39-percent rate increase on some California policyholders. A survey last year by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that double-digit hikes were implemented or were pending in at least 11 other states among the 14 where WellPoint’s Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are active. Rates for Indiana policyholders were expected to increase by 21 percent.

With his $800,000 salary and bonus and $5.6 million in stock options and restricted stock units in 2009, I can see why he’d be concerned with health insurance brokers getting an increase for “doing nothing.” You know how obscene those brokers’ pay is!
____________

Ed Snyder