Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ex-WellPoint exec helped write health-care reform bill

Not surprised by this:

Liz Fowler, a former public affairs executive for Indianapolis-based health insurance giant WellPoint, helped to craft health-care reform legislation being proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.

It's a connection that is drawing criticism from some reform advocates who support the creation of a public health plan that would compete against commercial insurers such as WellPoint. Baucus' bill does not call for the creation of a public plan.

"This just sounds like another example of the revolving door between government and industry," said Dr. Robert Stone, a Bloomington physician who also is director of the advocacy group Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan. "We don't really know how much influence her job at WellPoint had."

Stone said he considered the bill from Baucus, D-Mont., as the most favorable to for-profit insurers of those now before Congress.

Fowler worked at WellPoint as a vice president for public affairs from May 2006 through February 2008, according to the company. She was based in Washington. From there, she became Senior counsel to the chairman for Baucus' influential Senate Finance Committee.

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