You're Bailing Out the Fascist Bastards That Are Killing You!

May 13, 2009 (LPAC)—Who owns the HMOs that are destroying your health care? In part, the very same financial institutions that are stealing your tax money through the bailout swindle! A preliminary investigation by LPAC shows a significant overlap between the recipients of Federal bailout funds and the owners of the HMOs. For example, six U.S. banks that have received billions—and most of them tens of billions—of dollars in money from the TARP, also show up as being among the top institutional owners of the HMOs in our sample. These banks are: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and State Street. Also on the list is Barclays, the British giant which received U.S. bailout money via the AIG backdoor-bailout scheme. The list of owners also includes the major money management firms: FMR/Fidelity, Vanguard. Wellington, T. Rowe Price, Janus and others, the giant TIAA-CREF teachers' retirement fund, and AXA, the big French insurance company.

While these institutions individually typically own less than 15% of an HMO, and sometimes as little as 1%-2%, in the aggregate they dominate. Take the case of WellPoint, which bills itself as "the nation's leading health benefits company serving the needs of approximately 35 million medical members." As of the end of 2008, 638 institutions owned 88% of its outstanding shares. The top ten owners included: Dodge & Cox, 15%; Vanguard, 8%; T. Rowe Price, 7%; Barclays, 4.5%; Fairholme, 4.3%; State Street, 3.9%; Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, 3.9%; Capital Research, 2.6%; Fairholme Capital, 2.5%; FMR, 2.3%; and Goldman Sachs, 2.1%.

WellPoint has a decidedly political board, to go with its financial ownership. The directors include: William "Bucky" Bush, the younger brother of George H.W. Bush; former U.S. Senator and Banking Committee chairman Don Riegle (R-Mich.); Susan Bayh, the wife of Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind); and Sheila Burke, the former chief of staff to then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).