Three Connecticut organizations — the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, the Connecticut State Medical Society and the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut — are asking the state government to replace Insurance Commissioner Katherine Wade due to errors and oversights in her department's review of the Cigna-Anthem and Aetna-Humana mergers, according to the Hartford Courant.
Ms. Wade has numerous ties to Cigna, which likely should have prevented her from being involved in her department's review of Cigna's merger with Anthem, according to the report. Not only did her mother work for Cigna, but she is a former lobbyist for the insurer and her husband is on the payroll as a lawyer.
As far as the Aetna-Humana merger, the Connecticut Department of Insurance reached a decision — "that the proposed acquisition would not substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly in Connecticut" — in January. The DOI didn't initially explain several key facets of the review, such as the fact that a public hearing wasn't held because it's not required by law. Such confidential measures have led the Connecticut State Medical Society to call the DOI's role in the merger "closed-door," "secretive" and "without any public process."