By Chris Gray
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a staunch opponent of single-payer national health insurance who waffled on his support of even a meager government-run public option in this past year’s health care debate, has about a third of his stock invested in just one company: Indianapolis-based WellPoint, Inc., perhaps the most notorious of health insurance companies.
Bayh’s WellPoint stock is worth about $1 million. His net worth is modest by Senate standards, totaling no more than about $3 million in 2008.
Using data provided by opensecrets.org, a PNHP analysis of congressional health insurance stock assets revealed that the industry is not a popular one for legislators, with investments totaling only $2.1 million. Bayh’s investments are almost half that total.
The only other legislators with significant holdings in health insurance stock were Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Frelinghuysen holds $300,000 in Aetna stock; Kerry has the same amount in WellPoint. Harman has $150,000 in Aetna and $50,000 in WellPoint.
But Frelinghuysen, Kerry and Harman are all among the 20 wealthiest members of Congress, and their health insurance stock is less than 1 percent of their portfolios. Bayh stands out as a clear outlier.
The Indiana Democrat is set to retire at the end of the year. He has disparaged single payer as “socialized medicine” and spoke out against the public option for much of the year before announcing in October that he would not oppose a public plan. He joined Republicans to filibuster an amendment to the Senate bill in December that would have allowed the re-importation of drugs from Canada and Europe.
Bayh’s wife, Susan, sits on the board of directors for WellPoint, and over the past six years has earned at least $2 million in compensation, according to The Street magazine. The Street also said her appointment to the board in 2003 would likely have been viewed as a surprise, since she was relatively young and inexperienced to be helping to direct a multibillion-dollar board.
Bayh frequently stressed his “fiscal conservative” credentials as he helped organize the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, and favored maintaining and bolstering the system of for-profit health insurance throughout the reform debates.