Congressional Hearings on Health Care

Yesterday, I got to wondering why we weren’t hearing more about Congressional hearings on health care — not so much hearings about how to move forward, but hearings on what’s going on with the status quo. Seemed like with so many insurance companies trying to throttle the health care reform baby in its cradle, we’d maybe see the glare of Congressional subpoenas start to rain down on the health insurance industry. Rep. Waxman seems to be stepping in that direction.

The request included records relating to compensation of highly paid employees, documents relating to companies’ premium income and claims payments, and information on expenses stemming from any event held outside company facilities in the past 2 1/2 years.
. . .
Among the documents requested were records relating to compensation paid to any company executive earning more than $500,000 in any year from 2003 to 2008.

Waxman and Stupak also sought documents relating to premiums paid by policy holders, claims payments, sales expenses, administrative expenses and profits, broken down by categories such as employer-provided coverage; individual coverage, Medicare and Medicaid.

Emptywheel adds:

He’s asking for the following by September 4:

* A table listing the total compensation for every employee making more than $500,000 a year
* A table listing board member compensation
* A table listing off-site conferences and retreats
* A table listing the company’s total revenue and net income

And the following by September 14:

* Communication with the board on compensation packages
* Tables listing premium revenue, claims payments, and sales expenses

Perhaps this sort of documentation would allow us to determine whether our own Evan Bayh is the Senator from Indiana or the Senator from Wellpoint. I’m not asking the good Senator to go so far as to actually vote for a liberal health care system, but I’d appreciate it if he would commit to not filibustering health care legislation and let it rise or fall on its own. And, for that matter, if it does come down to a filibuster, I hope any fence-sitting Democrats are forced to cast a vote.

Speaking of hardball – the Progressive wing of the Democrats in the House are starting to play a little.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won’t be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn’t include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

“There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at a press conference in San Francisco today.

The thing is that, until some Republicans commit to actually voting for a final package, there is no sense in trying to accommodate them. Why include their ideas if doing so won’t add a vote to the total?