By Bruce Japsen | With health care reform legislation stalled in
Washington, advocates hoping Congress expands coverage to the uninsured
are taking to the streets later this afternoon to protest outside Aetna
Inc. offices in Chicago.
 
Health Care for America Now, which operates locally through consumer
group Citizen Action Illinois, said they are staging events outside of
the health plan’s offices at 1 S. Wacker Dr. in Chicago to highlight
the insurance industry’s large profits at a time the number of
Americans without coverage is on the rise.

Aetna’s corporate headquarters are in Hartford, Conn.
 
Across the country, advocates for health care reform have scheduled events this week to protest insurance industry profits and criticize dramatic rate increases. Earlier this week, Anthem Inc. said it would hold off on rate increases — some as high as 39 percent — in California after the Obama administration, led by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, launched a probe into a proposed rate increase for customer’s of Anthem’s California Blue Cross subsidiary.
 
Consumer advocates say the Anthem increase and decisions by insurers like Aetna to drop coverage for certain Americans are further evidence Congress can no longer delay action to reform the nation’s health care system. Insurers blame the rate increases and the dropping of customers on a risk pool of customers that has gotten smaller and sicker so the companies have higher medical costs.
 
“The health of our families and the health of our economy depend on passing health care reform,” said John Gaudette, Citizen Action Illinois’ state health care director. “Every day someone is losing their health insurance and it is not being treated as a justice issue. Aetna is dropping 650,000 clients because their profits dropped by $100 million, while the CEO makes $194 million in stock options.”
 
Aetna said it, too, wants to see health care reform.
 
“We continue to believe that this effort should move forward in a bipartisan fashion that focuses on the needs of consumers by improving affordability, quality and access,” said Aetna spokesman Mohit Ghose. “We will continue to press for a civil dialogue, even in the face of smear campaigns, to accomplish what the American people want us to accomplish — a public-private solution that addresses the underlying costs of care for millions of Americans while also improving access and health care quality.”