Health Care Firm Crawls Out From Under Rock: Congressman Boehner takes its money

Remember WellCare, the Tampa-based insurer that was accused of “bilking taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars by using fraudulent practices that were integral to the company’s profit-making,” says a St. Petersburg Times editorial? “But rather than recover every misappropriated dime and then triple the damages, as the law allows, the Justice Department has announced a preliminary settlement of a paltry $137.5 million to satisfy its whistle-blower claims. If WellCare keeps any of its ill-gotten gains and avoids a significant fine, the message to other health insurers will be loud and clear: fraud pays.”

WellCare’s PAC stopped making political contributions in the fall of 2007, after the Justice Department raided its headquarters. But now WellCare’s PAC is back in business, sending $2,500 to the Freedom Project, House Minority Leader John Boehner’s personal “Leadership PAC.”