Thursday, September 10, 2009

Baucus Bill Authored by "ex-Wellpoint VP"

My, my, my......

an ex-VP of Wellpoint, a health insurance company?

And again, Baucus is suppose to be in above board?

Please.

When Max Baucus circulated his draft plan earlier this week, the PDF documentation page (image) indicates that the "author" was ex-Wellpoint VP Liz Fowler. Fowler was hired in February as Senior Counsel to the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and famously boasted that "the reason that I have a lot of friends is ’cause I got to give away money.”

If Fowler did indeed write the draft plan, then how did the same framework and language find its way into an amendment submitted by Blue Dog Mike Ross in July?

Jon Walker finds that "the two documents are almost identical and and sometimes use the exact same wording":

Ross' amendment:

The governing documents of the cooperatives incorporate ethical and conflict of interest standards designed to protect against insurance industry involvement and interference in the governance of the cooperative.

Baucus' framework:

Its governing documents must incorporate ethics and conflict of interest standards protecting against insurance industry involvement and interference.

Again, the internet is a bitch. Read it all, here.

Home Page