From Brave New Films, The Health Insurance Racket: Getting Rich by Denying Americans Care:
UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068 in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most. Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they’re sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo. Why? Because the status quo pays. Learn more about the glamorous lives of billionaire health insurance executives and tell us your story of being victimized by their greed. Then contribute to Brave New Films so we can continue to get the word out about the health insurance racket.
And the HuffPo-- Denied Claims Placed At Health Insurance CEO's Doorstep:
A new video puts denied health insurance claims on United Health Care CEO Stephen Hemsley's doorstep.
The video, made by Brave News Films' Robert Greenwald, intercuts stories of people suffering because of denied claims with images Hemsley's fancy homes, along with details about how much money Hemsley's got ($744,232,068 in unexercised stock options, for example).
Holly Bailey says in the video that United Health Care refused to pay for medicine she couldn't live without.
"They kept telling my local pharmacy...'Oh we're just waiting for one more letter, or we're just waiting for one more script, and then we'll start paying,'" Bailey said. "This went on for six months, and December 4th both the pharmacy and I received a letter from United Health Care saying they deemed it medically unnecessary and that they were not going to pay any of it.
"I tried to explain to them that if I do not have this, I will die. And the only response she gave me was, 'OK.'"
Joanna Joshua, whose child's treatment was denied, asks, "Stephen Hemsley, how are you able to sleep at night?"
The piece aims to gin up the sort of pitchfork-style outrage against health insurance CEOs that so beset Wall Street executives after their industry was bailed out by the government.
"It's definitely similar and in some ways worse, because these are dollars are literally being taken away from you that could help save lives in order to build bigger mansions," said Greenwald in an interview with the Huffington Post. "We hope it will begin a part of the discussion that has not happened: Who is gaining from the current system, and why are they resisting?"
