Coverage in the Wall St. Journal:<\/p>\n
Aetna Shareholder Meeting Halted By Protesters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n By Dinah Wisenberg Brin<\/p>\n Of \u00a0DOW JONES NEWSWIRES<\/p>\n PHILADELPHIA (Dow Jones)–Aetna Inc.’s (AET) annual shareholder meeting was The meeting resumed about 10 minutes later, and no arrests were made; Aetna’s meeting had just gotten underway, and Chairman and Chief Executive Aetna security whisked Bertolini out a side door, while other security Two male protesters were temporarily hand-cuffed outside the meeting room Protesters who disrupted or picketed near the meeting included members of “Aetna’s been hypocritical all along about health-care reform,” saying it In response, Aetna said it has been working on health-care reform since After the meeting, Bertolini told Dow Jones Newswires, “Everybody is The company, in a formal statement, called the disruption “inappropriate, Stier said protesters weren’t trying to harm Bertolini and may have moved Protesters wearing T-shirts saying Action United shouted, “We want health According to its website, Action United was formed last year “to advance the He said Aetna was targeted mostly because it was holding its meeting in During the meeting, Aetna shareholders approved an investor resolution -By Dinah Wisenberg Brin, Dow Jones Newswires;\u00a0215-982-5582; –Peter Loftus and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.<\/p>\n ———————————————————————————— Protesters disrupt Aetna’s shareholders meeting in Center City <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n By Jane M.\u00a0Von Bergen INQUIRER STAFF WRITER<\/p>\n Protesters crashed Aetna Inc.’s annual shareholders meeting in Philadelphia Aetna chairman Mark T. Bertolini had just gone to the microphone at Le “Unfortunately, Aetna’s shareholder meeting this morning was disrupted by a After the group was removed from the hotel’s third-floor lobby, where coffee Among those protesting was Alicia Dorsey, of Mount Airy. Dorsey said she is The protesters based their accusations on a November story by Bloomberg News The donation, which was noted in the Chamber’s tax returns, was one of the On Friday, one of Aetna’s chief spokesmen, Mohit Ghose, who previously However, the company did issue a statement Friday saying that “we also The agenda for Friday’s meeting included the election of directors, a Several of the protesters had obtained proxy tickets to attend the meeting —————————————————– By Matthew Sturdevant Protesters interrupted Hartford-based Aetna’s annual shareholder meeting The protest involved a scuffle; \u00a0three people were seized by Philadelphia The protest was organized by the Health Care for America Now coalition and Protesters said Aetna executives and board members fled the room.<\/p>\n Action United member Alicia Dorsey said aloud during the protest, “We are Protesters also criticized executive pay at the healthinsurance company.<\/p>\n “People are entitled to their opinions,” said Aetna spokesman Fred Laberge ———————————————————————————————— Protesters disrupt Aetna meeting in Philadelphia<\/strong> Aetna Inc. spokesman Fred Laberge says the meeting was delayed for several Security asked them to leave and the meeting resumed after several minutes. A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department says no arrests were Coverage in the Wall St. Journal: Aetna Shareholder Meeting Halted By Protesters By Dinah Wisenberg Brin Of \u00a0DOW JONES NEWSWIRES PHILADELPHIA (Dow Jones)–Aetna Inc.’s (AET) annual shareholder meeting was halted temporarily when a group of protesters pushed through the doors to complain that the health insurance industry was trying to undermine the federal government’s health-care reform. The meeting resumed about 10 minutes later, and no arrests were made; however, the incident shows how the health-care overhaul approved last year by the federal government remains a heated issue. Aetna’s meeting had just gotten underway, and Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Bertolini was speaking to shareholders, when protesters shouting and carrying signs and bullhorns burst through the doors of the Le Meriden hotel meeting room. Aetna security whisked Bertolini out a side door, while other security people tried to restrain protesters. After the meeting, Bertolini said a protester had charged toward him.\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-penn-action-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-ZY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3842"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6129,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3842\/revisions\/6129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhalted temporarily when a group of protesters pushed through the doors to
\ncomplain that the health insurance industry was trying to undermine the
\nfederal government’s health-care reform.<\/p>\n
\nhowever, the incident shows how the health-care overhaul approved last year
\nby the federal government remains a heated issue.<\/p>\n
\nMark Bertolini was speaking to shareholders, when protesters shouting and
\ncarrying signs and bullhorns burst through the doors of the Le Meriden hotel
\nmeeting room.<\/p>\n
\npeople tried to restrain protesters. After the meeting, Bertolini said a
\nprotester had charged toward him. When the meeting resumed a few minutes
\nlater, the CEO didn’t continue his prepared remarks and instead proceeded
\nwith business.<\/p>\n
\nwhile police spoke to them and a woman, but a police spokeswoman said later
\nthere were no arrests, no injuries and nothing requiring further police
\nattention. Philadelphia police estimated there were about 30 protesters,
\nalthough about only a third or fewer actually entered the room.<\/p>\n
\nAction United, Penn Action and the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, all
\nmembers of the coalition Health Care for America Now, which planned the
\nevent, according to the Pennsylvania HCAN affiliate.<\/p>\n
\nsupports a health coverage overhaul while spending millions of dollars to
\ndefeat changes, said Marc Stier, executive director of Penn Action and state
\nHCAN director. He referenced reports that the major health insurers gave
\ntens of millions of dollars to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to
\ndefeat or change the overhaul legislation in Congress.<\/p>\n
\n2005. The company added that it has worked with the government and groups
\nlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the industry’s America’s Health
\nInsurance Plans “to educate the American people about the negative
\nimplications of a public option in health care reform.”<\/p>\n
\nentitled to their opinion, they just are not entitled to disrupt a meeting”
\nand create an unsafe environment. Bertolini was presiding over his first
\nannual meeting in the top job.<\/p>\n
\nuncivil and unsafe.”<\/p>\n
\ntoward the podium to get to the microphone.<\/p>\n
\ncare, Aetna unfair,” as they entered the room. A woman who was part of the
\ngroup stood in the middle of the meeting room and shouted, “Stop defeating
\nObama’s health care reform.”<\/p>\n
\ninterests of low and moderate income families around Pennsylvania.” The
\ngroup is funded by member dues and has no political affiliate, according to
\nits executive director, Craig Robbins.<\/p>\n
\nPhiladelphia and that the focus could have been “any number of these big
\ninsurance companies that are at war with health reform.”<\/p>\n
\ncalling on the company to split the roles of chairman and chief executive.
\nThe company will consider the recommendation, Bertolini said.<\/p>\n
\ndinah.brin@dowjones.com<\/p>\n
\nCoverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer
\nPosted on Fri, May. 20, 2011<\/p>\n
\non Friday morning, accusing the Connecticut-based health insurer of publicly
\nsupporting President Obama’s health-care plan while privately funneling
\nmoney to its opponents – in particular, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
\nMeridien Philadelphia, a Center City hotel, when the protesters walked into
\nthe meeting, chanting and carrying signs.
\nHotel security and police hurried the group of about 20 out, detaining three
\nof them for 30 minutes. No arrests were made, said one of the organizers of
\nthe protest.<\/p>\n
\ngroup of protesters,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this
\ndisruption was inappropriate, uncivil and unsafe. Aetna has been a strong
\nproponent of health-care reform and has been working to shape the future of
\nhealth care for the past decade.”<\/p>\n
\nand tea where being served for shareholders, the protest resumed outside.<\/p>\n
\non welfare now, but will soon go off it next month as she begins her new
\nmarketing business. “Health reform is important for America’s small
\nbusinesses,” she said.<\/p>\n
\nthat used sources to connect an $86.2 million donation made to the U.S.
\nChamber of Commerce in 2009 from America’s Health Insurance Plans, an
\nindustry lobbying group.<\/p>\n
\nlargest to the business advocacy groups, and helped pay for advertisements,
\npolling and efforts to drum up grass roots opposition to Obama’s health
\nplan, a Chamber spokesman told Bloomberg. Neither the Chamber nor AHIP would
\ncomment on the source of the money.<\/p>\n
\nworked for AHIP, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
\nworked through our testimony to Congress, our meetings on Capitol Hill, and
\nthrough the efforts of such groups as AHIP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
\nto educate the American people about the negative implications of a public
\noption in health-care reform.”<\/p>\n
\nnonbinding vote on executive compensation, and approval of Aetna’s proposed
\nemployee stock purchase plan.<\/p>\n
\nfrom shareholders, but they had not correctly completed all the paperwork
\nthat would have allowed them to stay.
\nInitially, they were allowed to remain in the meeting, but they were ejected
\nafter the disruption began, said Marc Stier, director of Health Care for
\nAmerica Now Pennsylvania, the group that organized the protest with Action
\nUnited, another advocacy group.<\/p>\n
\nCoverage in the\u00a0Hartford Courant
\nProtesters Burst Into Aetna’s Annual Shareholder Meeting<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMay 20, 2011 2:30 PM<\/p>\n
\nFriday in Philadelphia, bursting into the room and chanting, “We need health
\ncare; Aetna’s not fair.”<\/p>\n
\npolice and released after about 30 minutes, said Marc Stier of Penn ACTION,
\na progressive grassroots advocacy group.<\/p>\n
\ninvolved members of Action United, Philadelphia Unemployment Project and
\nPenn ACTION.<\/p>\n
\nhere because for years Aetna has said it supports health care reform. Yet
\nduring that time, it has been funneling millions of dollar of secret
\ncontributions to the Chamber of Commerce, which ran ads against the
\n(Affordable Care Act) and members of Congress that supported it.”<\/p>\n
\nsaid. “However, we believe this disruption was inappropriate, uncivil and
\nunsafe. Aetna has been a strong proponent of health care reform and has been
\nworking to shape the future of health care for thepast decade. Every day our
\n34,000 employees, including more than 4,000 clinicians, work to ensure our
\nmembers receive quality and compassionate care.<\/p>\n
\nCoverage by the AP for story that ran all over the world<\/p>\n
\nThe Associated Press
\nPHILADELPHIA A group of protesters briefly delayed Aetna’s annual
\nshareholders meeting in Philadelphia, but police say there were no arrests.<\/p>\n
\nminutes when a group of health care protesters came in the room chanting,
\n“We want health care, Aetna’s not fair.”<\/p>\n
\nLaberge says Aetna is not sure why it was targeted and that the Hartford,
\nConn.-based company has been a strong proponent of health care reform.<\/p>\n
\nmade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"