TPMMuckraker

Health Insurer Urged Employees To Fight Reform — “Our Livelihood” At Stake

It looks like Express Scripts isn’t the only company that’s pressing its employees to take action in opposition to health-care reform.

Last month, as the Post Standard of Syracuse, New York reports, David Klein, CEO of the health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield emailed employees to ask them to fill out postcards to New York’s senators, urging them to oppose the creation of a public option.

Klein’s email warned that such a plan would destroy the private insurance market. “[O]ur livelihood depends on health-system reform that achieves the right balance between what government can do and what private plans do best,” he wrote.

As the paper notes, Klein made $2.73 million last year. So his livelihood probably isn’t at stake here.

A spokeswoman told the paper: “On major issues of business-wide importance, we have given employees an opportunity to become involved — and always voluntarily.”

Hours after that story appeared, the company sent out a followup email telling employees how their family and friends could fill out their own postcards. An internal block prevented employees from forwarding the email, but TPMmuckraker obtained a screen-shot of it.

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