This year, shareholders are asking many of our country’s largest and most influential corporations to take a real stand on the healthcare debate. Many corporations played a key role in blocking healthcare reform in the 1990s, so shareholders and other activists are trying to get these companies to support universal healthcare reform now. Some companies, particularly those that are drowning in healthcare costs, have come out in favor of universal healthcare. But many companies have fought back tooth and nail to keep these issues out of their shareholder meetings.

Sadly, one of those companies was UnitedHealth, a gigantic health insurance corporation. By my calculations, the top five publicly traded health insurance companies made over $11.7 billion dollars last year off the current system, so it’s not surprising that a health insurance company would want to squash any attempt by shareholders to get the company to commit to reform. It was sad, though, to see UnitedHealth’s logic as the company argued against allowing the shareholder resolution to go on the ballot. From the New York Times:

Lawyers […] representing UnitedHealth, told the S.E.C., “The proposal provides that ‘health care should be universal,’ dictating to whom the company should provide coverage.” Moreover, they said, by asserting that “health care coverage should be affordable,” the proposal usurps the company’s right to decide what prices to charge for its policies.

Even after the commission told UnitedHealth to include the proposal in its proxy statement on April 2, the company urged the agency to reconsider, saying, “The proposal does not relate to a ‘significant social policy issue,’ as that term has been defined” by the commission.

So that’s what the company thinks of the principles of “universality” and “affordability,” huh? Fortunately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled in favor of shareholders, saying that the healthcare crisis definitely does constitute a real “social issue” worthy of being discussed in a shareholder meeting. And UnitedHealth has since posted a statement on its website professing its support for universal healthcare.

But we’ll have to watch out to make sure they stay true to their word!

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