More than 100 people stood in the driving rain outside the Kennebec County Superior Courthouse in Augusta Wednesday to voice their opposition to a legal challenge by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield over rates it charges in Maine. The demonstrators say they're angry that Maine's largest private insurer has appealed the state's denial of a rate increase, which The company says it needs to ensure profitability.

Wendell Potter used to be the corporate spokesman for Signa Health Insurance. Then one day, He says, he turned his back on a 15-year career after watching hundreds of insured customers line up at a county fair for free health care benefits that were not covered by their policies.

"I'd like to apologize for role I played 15 years ago -- and over the course of 15 years -- and cheating you all out of a reformed health care system."

Today, Potter is a senior fellow on health care at the Madison, Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy and an outspoken opponent of a national insurance industry that he says provides consumers with anything but a level playing field.

"And I'm ashamed that I let myself get caught up in deceitful and dishonest public relations campaigns that worked so well that hundreds of thousands of our citizens have died and millions of others have lost their homes and been forced into bankruptcy so that a very few corporate executives like those at Anthem and Signa and their Wall Street masters could become obscenely rich."

Potter offered his apology to more than 100 people who stood drenched by a driving rain outside the Kennebec County Superior Courthouse in Augusta to protest a rate hike request from Maine's largest insurer, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Last spring, Mila Kofman -- Maine's superintendent of insurance -- rejected an Anthem request for an 18 percent rate hike for its individual insurance plans that REGULATORS deemed to be excessive. Instead, Kofman approved a revised request for nearly 11 percent increase, which gave the company a zero percent profit margin. Anthem responded by filing an appeal with the Superior Court in Augusta, saying the regulatory decision deprived the company of earning a net profit in Maine.

"I have to ask. Who gets a guaranteed net profit today?"
 
Phil Bailey is the state director for Maine Change That Works that is advancing the cause of a public option for health care. Bailey says companies like Anthem have posted significant profits in recent years from Maine policy holders, which he says Kofman noted in her ruling.

"Anthem decided to take the taxpayers of the state of Maine to court. Not over the rate hike getting cut in half -- I guess they didn't need it as bad as they said -- but over the 3 percent guaranteed net profit…seriously? Are you kidding me?"

"To see this many people come out on a rainy day not only shows me that this issue strikes a chord with Maine people, but how important it is that we pass national health care legislation."
 
Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree says that despite the best efforts of the Legislature to provide low-costs health care options, more than 128,000 Mainers remain uninsured and even more are paying for policies that fail to provide adequate coverage. Her concerns were echoed by Kathryn Bunker, a Southwest Harbor registered nurse representing the Maine State Nurses Association at the rally. Bunker says she has seen too many people defer their health care needs because of costs.

"We feel that profits have no place in health care and that insurance companies are standing between our patients and their health care providers. It seemed like a natural thing to come here today because of Anthem's use of their funds of patients to work against their best interests."

Although he declined to be interviewed for this story, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield spokesman Chris Dugan said in a prepared statement that the company was simply appealing a ruling by the state insurance superintendent and was not taking the state to court as some of the protesters claims. He also said a three percent profit margin was being sought by the company to help offset claims that have exceeded premiums by more than four million dollars over the past five years.