By Jon Lender – Hartford Courant – May 24, 2017
Accused Of Trying To Influence Bill To Stop Drug Price Gouging
HARTFORD — Senate leaders warned Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade Tuesday to drop what they described as her attempt to water down a proposed anti-price-gouging consumer bill in which Cigna Corp. — which employed her for two decades, and where her husband still works — has a stake.
“[P]lease accept this letter as an expression of our concern regarding your attempt to influence pending legislation in which Cigna, your former employer and your husband’s current employer, has a direct financial interest,” Sens. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Len Fasano, R-North Haven, told Wade in an unusually blunt letter.
Wade worked for Cigna for 21 years as a lobbyist and vice president. Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy named her to head the state Insurance Department in 2015, shortly after she left the Bloomfield-based company.
Her husband is a lawyer at Cigna.
Looney and Fasano told Wade that “we would have expected you to support legislation that improves public transparency regarding drug prices [and] protects consumers from secret price gouging. …
Therefore, we were surprised to learn that you interjected yourself into the legislative process in a manner that would benefit Cigna and other insurers who have WADE, B2
– See more at: http://digitaledition.courant.com/tribune/article_popover.aspx?guid=df782118-2974-4aac-a894-4ccbcf5e9994&t=1495636631741#sthash.NaxEmf7L.dpuf
