Karen Weldin Stewart’s Appeal to Nowhere…
…on behalf of, well, not the people of the State of Delaware, has been dismissed by federal regulators. The News-Journal story has a distinct Karen in Wonderland flavor to it.
To (half-)wit: Our elected insurance commissioner, apparently on her own, applied for a three-year waiver to:
“exempt Aetna and UnitedHealthcare from spending 80 percent of premiums on medical care rather than administrative expenses or profits.”
You see, our Insurance Commissioner, who was elected by the people of the State of Delaware, felt that these much-maligned companies should only have to pay 65 cents of every health care dollar for, you know, health care. Her quote, in the form of a Yogi-worthy mixed metaphor:
“Sometimes it’s better to take baby steps than it is to swallow whole,” Stewart said Monday.
Before I proceed, can we all agree that this homily deserves consideration for end-of-the-year awards?
Thought so.
In other words, unless my reading comprehension skills have completely left me, our Insurance Commissioner, who was elected by the people of the State of Delaware, fought for higher executive salaries, higher commissions, and higher overhead and marketing costs for Aetna and United Healthcare to the detriment of health care delivery for Delaware policyholders. To the tune of 15 cents out of every health care dollar. She specifically was carrying the torch for insurance brokers/salespersons who were facing slashes in their commissions. That is precisely the kind of wasteful spending that leads to high healthcare costs and needs to be slashed. If everyone has to have health insurance, someone shouldn’t get a commission to sell it to you. And why should this small group of greedy individuals carry more weight with our elected IC than those whose health care would suffer to the tune of 15 cents out of every health care dollar?
Plus, even with the exorbitant golden parachutes BC/BSD execs are eying hungrily, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Delaware easily exceeds the 80% mandate. It ain’t that hard to do.
By Stewart’s own admission, the denial of her federal application will lead to “either lower premiums or rebates for about 6,300 Delawareans with individual insurance plans”. Lower premiums or rebates that KWS didn’t want you to have. Um, did I mention that she was elected by the people of the State of Delaware? Just want to make sure.
And I just want to make sure that this misbegotten sop to the insurance industry never gets near elective office ever again. She is truly one of the worst elected officials in Delaware history. And that’s saying something.
Tags: Karen Weldin Stewart; Health Care; Insurance Commissioner; El Somnambulo; Steve Tanzer;
I dunno. Assuming the application was pretty weak and was bound to be denied – at least by applying for the waiver she got brownie points with Aetna and UnitedHealthCare.
Why antagonize them by refusing to make the application? She has to work with the insurance companies long-term.
Theoretically at least, the application gives her political capital in other dealings that might be more consumer-oriented (HEY, I said “theoretically!”)
“Sometimes it’s better to take baby steps than it is to swallow whole,”
sounds more like a quote from Marilyn Chambers…………… 🙂
My read of the article suggests that the application was filed more on behalf of specific brokers and agents than on behalf of Aetna and United Healthcare.
Points to Aoine on recognizing that Marilyn Chambers’ first brush with fame was by appearing on an Ivory Snow box (’99 & 44/100% pure’) and not the ‘swallow whole’ portion of her career.
😉
This woman never fails to flabbergast me.
Her methods are “unsound”.
She needs to be removed……with extreme prejudice.
Oh well, I guess ES beat me to the post.
In further news regarding our illustrious IC, KWS fined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware $325,000 for its MedSolutions Cardiac Nuclear Stress Test debacle. They NEGOTIATED the fine–NO hearing. The fine is just 2% of the reserves.
Sort of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that she’s out there looking after the consumer. NOT!!!
Thanks for getting this out there – KWS is, well, numerous words spring to mind but I’ll leave them in my head.
KWS is the worst case of voters’ remorse I’ve ever had.
Just think that if some sensible Democrat declared today that voting for KWS was terrible for the people of DE and that it would have been far better to have supported and elected the then Republican in the race, John Brady, it would be held against that Democrat years from now if he or she wanted to be chairperson of the DE Democratic Party. Funny how blind loyalty trumps intelligent civic responsibility.
I see the blowhard is back trolling around here tonight.
Dana – looking at the election results from 2008, KWS was the worst performing D to win a statewide race. She took almost 50,000 votes less than Jack Markell. A good number of D’s voted for John Brady, me included, and no one has ever held it against me.
Look, she just doesn’t want to bite the hand that rocks the cradle.
She let the cat out of the spilled milk.
Didnt have time to read everything. Just saying the negative slant is so obvious even when there is good is bad.
Maybe she did, but you don’t need to beat her over the head with a dead horse.
It’s time for this dead horse to ride off into the sunset.
@ MJ – “KWS fined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware $325,000 for its MedSolutions Cardiac Nuclear Stress Test debacle. They NEGOTIATED the fine–NO hearing. The fine is just 2% of the reserves.”
My source at the Department of Insurance tells me that BCBS was only fined after Karen Weldin Stewart’s Sr. Advisor Elliott Jacobson was denied a cardiac nuclear stress test. Jacobson was pissed and was able to use his connections to get a stress test approved after raising hell over his denial. If Jacobson was not denied – I doubt Weldin Stewart would have fined BCBS at all.
Again, Jacobson and Stewart committed just another self serving action. No surprise there.
A friend in need is a friend indeed of a cardiac nuclear stress test.
“….tells me that BCBS was only fined after Karen Weldin Stewart’s Sr. Advisor Elliott Jacobson was denied a cardiac nuclear stress test.”
If true – hilarious.
I guess Elliott’s adonis-like body was starting to give out.
I hate KWS as much as the next chap and have no intention of voting for her either in the primary or (God help us) in the general but I’m kinda on board with the waiver for this bit of the healthcare bill. With a state pool this small I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibilities that a few insurers would close up shop here rather than try to operate inside the 20% margin.
If they can’t provide 80 cents on every dollar towards healthcare, then they shouldn’t be in business. And that’s the point. High commissions, high executive salaries, marketing schemes, et al, take away from health care dollars being provided for health care.
People talk about waste, fraud and abuse by users. The BIG bucks are due to waste, fraud and abuse by alleged providers.
The small pool referred to is only the “individual” market. Aetna and Golden Rule ( United ) each have a huge presence in Delaware. Aetna (and BCBSD) administers the State Employees plan and United is the primary carrier for Medicare Supplement insurance in Delaware. Both companies have very healthy profits this year. Not only are these two companies not in danger of withdrawing from Delaware, but neither ever threatened to do so if the waivers were not granted. That was merely the initial reason given when the DOI requested waivers.
I’m sure the bigger fellas will be fine and probably clear that threshold already but we have, what? 100 + captive insurers and some of them are rather small so with the inefficiencies of a smaller outfit salary and overhead make up a bigger chunk of expenses. I sympathies with ES’s argument that we only want the best but I think on the other hand we might be better off with more choices, call it my libertarian streak.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Too bad it took you idiots almost three years to learn the hard way, and don’t think KWS gives a flying fuck about what you all say about her. She got into office to enrich herself and the hell with Delaware policyholders. Mission accomplished.
Wasn’t the big issue on sale of BCBS to Highmark the multi multi millions in the net worth of BCBSD that came from Delaware citizens and would be transferred to Highmark?
@ reis:
Yes, it was. And with the legislature’s help (spelled McDowell), corrupt Karen Weldin Stewart now has control of those “multi multi” millions. $185 million in claim reserves to be exact. Wonder how much of it will be left for policyholders’ health care claims once she gets done with it.
http://ifawebnews.com/2011/09/14/delaware-blues-fined-325000-for-pre-authorization-deficiencies/
Obviously Elliott Jacobson is feeding his pandering pressers to industry journals and obviously they don’t double check them before they publish his crap.
“Stewart called the agreement “another step in solving the complex problems of delivering the highest quality health care to Delaware citizens. I will continue to monitor the pre-authorization process used by health insurers to ensure that Delaware consumers get the best possible care.””
Maybe we were all wrong about KWS after all?
…Just kidding.
I am gaining new respect for the writing abilities of Elliott Jacobson or whoever is the current mouthpiece for DOI. Every corporate boondoggle has to be carefully restated as if it were some kind of consumer benefit. I guess the translation on-the-fly becomes second nature after a while. I sure couldn’t do it.
The recent public emphasis on consumer benefit and protection is a futile attempt by the DOI mouthpiece du jour to make half-wit Stewart look competent. It started immediately after Mitch Crane announced he would run against her in 2012.
She’s screwed because the industry is on to her and isn’t contributing to her campaign. That’s where most of her money came from in 2008 with insurance lawyers acting as conduits. Expect a down and dirty campaign with character assassination against Mitch. Jacobson promised to make his DOI personnel file public, no doubt only after adding a bunch of lies. I hope he’s prepared for seeing KWS and himself and the other crooked cronies exposed as the total frauds they are.
Wouldn’t this be the perfect time for Markell to make the Insurance Commissioner’s office an appointed one? What are the chances he’ll do that? Stewart has no party support at all now.
Sadly, it would take a Constitutional Amendment which would not be finished at least until 2013.
Luckily, we have the chance to vote her out next September.
An executive order wouldn’t do it? It works for President Obama when he needs to get things done.
Well, the President *is* head of the Executive Branch, so yes the President does issue Executive Orders to get things done within the Executive Branch. I suppose you think he should ask permission from a committee of teabaggers first?
Don’t twist things around and make this something it isn’t. It’s about KWS and Markell and not Obama.
Who mentioned Obama first, genius?
So what the hell’s wrong with mentioning Obama? I should expect a hostile response for a perfectly innocent comment? Stick to the topic and don’t create controversy where there isn’t any.
Uh, Gabriel, may I suggest you go back to junior high school and take a refresher course in American government? The governor cannot do away with a Constitutional Office by executive order.
Too bad, and thanks so much for the lesson in civics.
There’s an election next September 11th. If you want to get rid of KWS, vote against her. If you really really want to get rid of her, donate time and/or money to Mitch Crane (who’s got a great shot at defeating her.) A Constitutional amendment to make this an appointed position isn’t going to happen.
Whether or not it will pass is irrelevant. The fact that you can run for the office means that insurance companies can pump their own candidates full of cash. An appointed commissioner is easier to fire and thus has less power. This is a job for a competent bureaucrat, not a career politician.
I agree. That’s I’m happy we have Mitch running. He’s not taking money from the insurance companies and he is a competent bureaucrat who used to work in the Dept of Insurance.
Speaking of taking money, for us to elect Mitch, we need to put dollars in his warchest. If we just talk about it, we give KWS four more years, or we get a Republican who believes that the office should serve at the pleasure of the insurance companies.
To contribute to Mitch’s campaign, go to http://www.mitchcranefordelaware.com/contribute.html
I contributed yesterday.
KWS fed the hand that feds her! If they agreed on a “fine” rather than go to court, theres no telling how much they should have been fined. KWS has always been in the pocket of the insurance companies. Everything she has done will only force Delaware into a single payer health care system. Jack knows she is a dizzy, wifty, fool who will do nothing for the citizens of this state, her hand is too deeply embedded in the crotch of the insurance companies.
So where is Mr. Beau the AG in all of this? He and Markell and Denn knew what KWS was all about even before the 2008 primary, so none of this is news to them. With all the evidence of corruption and plenty of probable cause to seize the records at Stewart’s and Jacobson’s private homes where they moved them after the CRI report last year, it looks like he should have started the much needed house cleaning at the DOI a long time ago. By now they’ve probably destroyed everything, so this stupider than average political hack insurance commissioner who has just enough brains to protect her own corrupt ass will stay out her term and retire rich with total impunity after entering office near bankruptcy. Another fine example of political corruption in Delaware paying off big time.
“With all the evidence of corruption and plenty of probable cause to seize the records at Stewart’s and Jacobson’s private homes”
What probable cause? Do you know anything about the law at all? You anti-KWS folks have been screeching this stuff for three years now, and I have yet to see a single piece of evidence on paper that shows probable cause for the search warrants that would be required. You need more than incompetence and rumors.
“it looks like he should have started the much needed house cleaning at the DOI a long time ago.”
Again, what are you talking about? The IC’s office is run by the IC, not the governor, not the General Assembly, and not the Attorney General.
Not for the first time, I ask you: Put up or shut up.
I won’t dignify your usual rant with a response because we all know you know better than the crap you wrote. All you’re really doing with that is helping KWS and ilk by making them look better than you know they are. Is that really what you want to do?
Uh, no, that’s not what Geezer’s doing. There’s more than enough on-the-record stuff to tear her record to shreds.
But your unfounded allegations about probable cause are reckless and incendiary.
You don’t need to believe everything your buddy Jr., and you know which Jr. I mean, tells you.
Even a casual browse through this website should tell you that neither DL as a whole nor commenters like Geezer are working overtime to make KWS ‘look better than (we)know’ she is.
Just stick to the facts, not to the vitriol. They’re more than enough to make sure that she will not be reelected next year.
That would be good. But it would be better to see all of them led away in handcuffs because the allegations are far from unfounded and you know it.
No I don’t. Neither do you. If you do, then pony up the proof, not the rhetoric.
Um… Paul, Gabriel, JenniK, JGH’s dad, Insurancegirl, etc.
Pick a name and stick to it. Sock-puppetry is not tolerated.
No sock puppetry here.
And yet you all have the same IP#.
It’s not a rant. What you post are rants. You claim there is corruption, yet you produce no evidence. How hard is this to comprehend: If you don’t have evidence, you don’t have a case. You need evidence to produce the probable cause to search anywhere. “She’s a moron” is not evidence of corruption.
At the very least, you are going to need affidavits from people in the office saying they know of criminal activity. That’s the minimum. Do you have it? Why not? If so many people know of this criminal conspiracy, why has not a single one sworn out a criminal complaint against her? Do you really expect me to believe that people are freaking AFRAID of her? She has no powerful backing; Harris McDowell is about it, and he’s about as powerful as a Democratic Terry Spence.
If you know of missing money, or payments to bank accounts, step forward and swear out an affidavit for the US Attorney’s office. If not, well, then you have nothing, don’t you?
@ pandora: The same server doesn’t mean the same people.
I was going to say something, but Geezer just said it.
You claim there is corruption, yet you produce no evidence.
And yet Paul and his apparently large family just ignores it.
Go soak your heads.
It’s not a family but a large office with people who all know KWS and what she’s about who’d like to see her brought to justice. That includes a good number of people she’s screwed literally and figuratively to advance her agenda.
Most of the many “anons” on here have said the same thing in various ways at different times, even on this very thread, especially about what KWS and Jacobson did with the evidence and how she’s always been in the pockets of insurance companies, and no one got on their case. Why don’t you apply your rigid standards to them, too.
Uh, we do and we HAVE applied those standards.
Unfortunately,your reading comprehension skills are on a par with your reporting skills.
Not our fault.
The “STANDARDS” are applied haphazardly at best here.
No one busted in a brothel can claim “high moral standards”.
And I KNOW how to read, oh sleepy one.
We warn against unsubstantiated allegations all the time. Granted, we’re not editors, we’re volunteers running a blog. You’re right that those standards are not always applied consistently, but it’s not due to a lack of effort.
But when we warn someone at least three times during a given thread, and the poster continues to throw out stuff w/o one whit of proof, they’re fortunate that their stuff doesn’t get scrubbed.
Not sure about the brothel comment, although it appears that there may be an interesting story there.
And I don’t think I accused you of being unable to read. Care to elucidate?
This is as simple as can be. The standard I’m calling for is the same standard you would face with any journalistic organization — show us the evidence. Even the circumstances you describe, in which lots of people “know” things, can be worked with — as I said, get sworn affidavits from these people. It’s not rocket science. I have a difficult time believing that, in an office full of people out to chronicle corruption, not a single person was able to save a single scrap of paper that would prove a single thing.
Yet that’s exactly the situation you claim exists. Sorry, but Occam’s Razor says the more likely explanation is that no proof exists or has ever existed. The only way you can overturn that conclusion is to provide some evidence.
What is difficult about this? Why can’t you do it?
I should make one thing more clear: I would like someone to produce this evidence. That’s why I sometimes sound frustrated, Paul et al. Maybe what you need to do is meet outside the workplace and come up with a strategy for getting this done. I would be happy to help.
Oh sleepy one- The reading comment was a pre-emptive attempt to deflect that particular accusation.
I should have left it out.
The “brothel” comment?
I’m reading Nelson Johnson’s BOARDWALK EMPIRE.
I recommend it to all.Fascinating stuff.
Apparently, Atlantic City rose to prominence on it’s ability to provide women, booze and gambling, plus, overwhelming Republican votes in local, state-wide and national contests.
The HBO series follows,somewhat accurately, the rise of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson.
In his day, he united MOBSTERS and POLITICIANS towards the same end and agenda.
Y’know, maybe we ought to do a “What We’re Reading” ongoing thread.
Our contributors/readers/commenters clearly have a diverse, divergent, and eclectic range of interests.
Too lazy to start it today, but maybe next week, unless someone beats me to it.