3rd UPDATE: Aetna Shareholder Meeting Halted By Protesters

Aetna Inc.'s (AET) annual shareholder meeting was halted temporarily when a group of protesters pushed through the doors to complain that the health insurance industry was trying to undermine the federal government's health-care reform.

The meeting resumed about 10 minutes later, and no arrests were made; however, the incident shows how the health-care overhaul approved last year by the federal government remains a heated issue.

Aetna's meeting had just gotten underway, and Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Bertolini was speaking to shareholders, when protesters shouting and carrying signs and bullhorns burst through the doors of the Le Meridien hotel meeting room.

Aetna security whisked Bertolini out a side door, while other security people tried to restrain protesters. After the meeting, Bertolini said a protester had charged toward him. When the meeting resumed a few minutes later, the CEO didn't continue his prepared remarks and instead proceeded with business.

Two male protesters were temporarily hand-cuffed outside the meeting room while police spoke to them and a woman, but a police spokeswoman said later there were no arrests, no injuries and nothing requiring further police attention. Philadelphia police estimated there were about 30 protesters, although about only a third or fewer actually entered the room.

Protesters who disrupted or picketed near the meeting included members of Action United, Penn Action and the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, all members of the coalition Health Care for America Now, which planned the event, according to the Pennsylvania HCAN affiliate.

"Aetna's been hypocritical all along about health-care reform," saying it supports a health coverage overhaul while spending millions of dollars to defeat changes, said Marc Stier, executive director of Penn Action and state HCAN director. He referenced reports that the major health insurers gave tens of millions of dollars to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to defeat or change the overhaul legislation in Congress.

In response, Aetna said it has been working on health-care reform since 2005. The company added that it has worked with the government and groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the industry's America's Health Insurance Plans "to educate the American people about the negative implications of a public option in health care reform."

After the meeting, Bertolini told Dow Jones Newswires, "Everybody is entitled to their opinion, they just are not entitled to disrupt a meeting" and create an unsafe environment. Bertolini was presiding over his first annual meeting in the top job.

The company, in a formal statement, called the disruption "inappropriate, uncivil and unsafe."

Stier said protesters weren't trying to harm Bertolini and may have moved toward the podium to get to the microphone.

Protesters wearing T-shirts saying Action United shouted, "We want health care, Aetna unfair," as they entered the room. A woman who was part of the group stood in the middle of the meeting room and shouted, "Stop defeating Obama's health care reform."

According to its website, Action United was formed last year "to advance the interests of low and moderate income families around Pennsylvania." The group is funded by member dues and has no political affiliate, according to its executive director, Craig Robbins.

He said Aetna was targeted mostly because it was holding its meeting in Philadelphia and that the focus could have been "any number of these big insurance companies that are at war with health reform."

During the meeting, Aetna shareholders approved an investor resolution calling on the company to split the roles of chairman and chief executive. The company will consider the recommendation, Bertolini said.

In addition, shareholders approved the company's 12 nominees for the board, and Aetna's board authorized another $750 million in stock buybacks, adding to the $315 million available under the company's prior authorization.

-By Dinah Wisenberg Brin, Dow Jones Newswires; 215-982-5582; dinah.brin@dowjones.com

--Peter Loftus and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.

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