had their policies presented by three insurance companies who will testify today, assurance, united health group and wellpoint. per my review of case files of the committee has identified a variety of abuses by insurance companies including conducting investigation with an eye toward a decision in every case in which a policyholder simmons a claim relating to leukemia, breast cancer or in any of a list of 1400 serious or costly medical conditions. rescinding policies based on alleged failure to disclose the health condition entirely unrelated to the policyholders current medical problem. rescinding policies based on policyholders failure to disclose a medical condition after doctors never told them about. rescinding policies based on is a mistake by policyholders and applications in rescinding coverage for all families -- for rescinding coverage for all members of a family of a summit million to disclose medical condition of one family member. investigation has also found that at least one insurance company wellpoint evaluated employee performance based in part on the amount of money is simply s

investigation by the subcommittee on investigations showed that health insurance well point, united health group and assure it canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing companies to avoid medical claims. policy -- others were targeted for cancellation. they make money by denying care. caller: she is talking about recisions. look for any reason to dump that person. when you look at some of the insurance reform that are emerging now in some of these bills, i think they want to draw attention to that. i would say that democrats are saying at this point, that they don't want the government between you and your physician. they want you and your doctor to make decisions together on your care and keep your insurance if you like it. host: walter on the republic that linline. caller: everybody is covered. health insurance is covered by everybody. no doctor has ever said to somebody when they walk in, if you don't have the money, i can't set your broken leg. that is a fallacy. as far as this idea of socialized medicine, if we are all going on socialized medicine, and ted kennedy along wit

the top four health insurance companies in america -- united health group, well point, aetna and humana -- made more than $7.5 billion in combined profit last year, while the bottom fell out for sreurt wastefulry other company, short of the oil industry, across the board. the goal of the democratic health insurance bill is to create health care and quality. republicans want to preserve a broken system, one with escalating costs and no guarantee that the policy is going to be there when you need it. rather than health insurance companies, democrats want to put american families first and help those who are struggling with high health care costs. i think this is a moment of truth for us in this congress. this isn't an easy issue. right now the finance committee and the "help" committee are both working hard in the senate to try to put together health care reform. but let me tell you, without this things are going to get progressively worse. the cost of health care will continue to rise to unsupportable levels. individuals will still feel that even if they have a good health insurance plan

s making $1.6 billion like the united health group made, how can you get that kind of money unless a whole lot of people are not getting something, the health care they should get? how can you have these profits that people are turning over and still cover everybody? you can't do it. you either have to cut people out of coverage, deny claims and pay profits or you have to run a decent system that extends coverage, but in that case, you don't have people making gobs of money. so you have to make a basic and essential choice. ms. hirono: as i had mentioned, that is generally the states of regulated companies. most states do not have the kind of resources or even the laws that allow them to look at what the health care insurance companies are doing, how they're basing their cost increases or their premium increases. so there really is a lack of transparency and accountability. and when you don't have the ability to look at the relationship between the rates they're charging and what the claimsr how can you even begin to say that peoples' needs are actually being met or that cost containm

ashurent, united health group and well point, the committee has identified a variety of abuses from insurance companies. including conducting an investigation in ever case in which a policy holder has leukemia or any of a list of 1,400 serious or costly medical conditions. rescission is entirely unrelated to the policy holders unrelated problem. conditions that their doctors never told them about. rescinding coverage for all families -- excuse me, rescinding for all members of the fallly based on not disclosing one medical condition of a family. well point evaluated family performance base on the amount of money the employees saved the company on retroactive decisions. according to documents, one well point official was afforded a perfect score of five for exceptional performance, based on having saved the company $10 million through rescissions. these practices reveal that when an insurance company received an expensive treatment, some of them will look for a way, any way to avoid having to pay for it. this is very eerily similar to what we found last year where unscrupulous sales people wou

collins, owned by united health group. mr. brian sassi, am i saying that right? sassi who is the president and chief executive officer of wellpoint inc. and ms. karen pollitz who is the research professor georgetown university health policy institute. welcome to all of our witnesses. is the policy of the subcommittee to take your testimony under oath. please bid bison of the right and the rules of the house to be it buys the council during your testimony. kiewit to be represented by counsel during your testimony? mr. hamm you would? any time during the questions if you want to get advice from counsel, just let us know and we will allow the. council cannot testify but the cannon fisa. mr. collins? mr. sassi? ms. pollitz? so then let me have you raise your right hand and take the oath. do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter pending before this committee? let the record reflect that the witnesses replied in the affirmative. they are now under the beginning with their opening st

on health care for, the deal has been part of this, and other groups have, the competitive disagree -- disadvantage the united states faces because of our health care system, disadvantage for families, disadvantages for small business, for big business, disadvantages for taxpayers and disadvantage for the government, we are on an unsustainable path. and can no longer sustain that path where we are just putting more money into a system that fundamentally has the wrong incentives. i call what we are doing the three cs, control costs, provide choice, expand coverage. costs, choice, coverage. that is the basic principles. the president has done a good job over the last couple months on health care. the entire debate in the past, truman, johnson, nixon, carter, and president clinton, every one of the talked-about how to expand coverage and the fundamental difference that the administration has sponsored in this perspective is to do healthcare reform, you must change the incentives in the system, the way you control costs, that if you don't do that and putting more money into a broken system that has the incentives

juncture, even old adversaries are united around the same bolt -- quality, affordable health care for all americans. i know that when you bring together disparate groups with differing views, there will be lively debate, and that is something i welcome, but we cannot accept is reform. just invest more money in the status quo,

united states of america and not a citizen of the world. [applause] compare that passion for individual liberty and individual opportunity with the quotas, group policies and bure democratic healthcare rationing advocated by our opponents. lincoln. reagan in one of his radio talks in the 1970's, part of which we have in our movie, said the following: "some of our social planners refer to them as the masses, which only proves they don't know them. i've been privileged to meet people all over this land, in a special kind of way you meet them when you are campaigning. they are not the masses or as the elitists would have it, the common man, they are very uncommon. individuals, each with his or her own hopes and dreams, plans and problems, and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth. and that's why rationing is wrong, and that's why question as are wrong. because in fact they eliminate the very power of the individual -- question as are wrong. this -- quotas are wrong. >> this lead us to some profound commitments. having judges that understand that america that has driven god from the public square will no longer be