The
Hartford Courant has launched a damning attack on Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katherine Wade over her role in the merger of two giant insurance companies. The newspaper’s negative coverage joins the growing chorus of calls from groups such as the Connecticut State Medical Society and the Universal Health care Foundation for the governor to seek a replacement.
Ms. Wade’s refusal to heed calls for her to remove herself from the process has left her open to claims that she may not be able to give impartial advice where her previous employer is concerned. As a former lobbyist for Cigna she is not the only person in the family who relies on the insurance giant for funding – her husband’s law firm is on the payroll. It also doesn’t help hat her mother is an ex-Cigna employee and that her father-in-law works for a firm that lobbies for health insurers in the state.
Although her appointment to her current role was by a unanimous vote, Senator Rob Kane said at the time he had reservations. He was unhappy that she took a noncommittal stance when she was asked whether she would step aside from any rulings involving Cigna.
Wade was VP of Public Policy, Government Affairs and US compliance when she left Cigna where she had worked for 21 years.
