Health Care For America Now

Back in 2007, the nation's largest health insurer, WellPoint, pledged to spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

Three years later, they've only spent $6.2 million on their "comprehensive plan:"

In 2007, just as Democrats took control of Congress, WellPoint pledged that its charitable foundation would spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

But according to tax filings, company promotional material and former executives familiar with the initiative, WellPoint never came close to fulfilling that pledge. A company spokeswoman disputed that Wednesday.

However, WellPoint's public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity's total giving over the last three years.

"It was just not something that the company really wanted to do," said one former executive, who, like others interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified out of concern that discussing WellPoint could have adverse career consequences. "So it went by the wayside."

Let's put this all in perspective.

Over the three years from 2007-2009, WellPoint made $10 billion in profit, or $9 million per day, more than WellPoint has currently contributed to this "comprehensive plan," even though a week of profits would have covered the full amount they pledged.

Their CEO pay for 2007 and 2008 (2009 numbers are not available yet) was $28.5 million, just about the amount of their promise. In 2008, Angela Braley, WellPoint's CEO, made $9.8 million, more than WellPoint actually spent on this "comprehensive plan" to date.

Over the past three years, WellPoint has bought back $12.1 billion dollars worth of its own stock, a technique that jacks up a stock's price and is used to reward Wall Street investors. Just .2% of the money they spent rewarding Wall Street would have fulfilled their promise.

And, let's not forget, this is the same WellPoint that jacked up rates 39% in California through its subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, all the while cutting millions from its rolls.

This is WellPoint's business model - reward Wall Street at the expense of customers by denying care and carving out benefit designs that save them money by making you pay more. It's also the business model health reform - which according to the latest CBO numbers [pdf] will cover 95% of the population - is designed to end.