In the early 1990s, Massachusetts deregulated its health care industry, a change the Boston Globe said had been “the brainchild of members of the Weld administration, particularly Charles Baker” (Boston Globe, 11/21/1991). Baker, then a top bureaucrat in the state’s Health & Human Services office, claimed deregulation would save employers and consumers money (Boston Globe 7/1/4/1991 and 1/1/1992).

Just months after leaving his job running the state budget for then-Gov. Paul Cellucci, Charlie Baker was named CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, then, as now, one of the state’s largest health insurance companies. The job came with a huge pay hike over Baker’s old salary as a public employee (Associated Press, 5/21/1999).

Six months after taking over Harvard Pilgrim in May 1999, CEO Charlie Baker was back on Beacon Hill, negotiating a “$150 million bailout,” via a Massachusetts Health & Educational Facilities Authority bond issue and other means. In January 2000, Harvard Pilgrim sought state receivership, with the Attorney General and state Insurance Commissioner taking control and overseeing a restructuring plan. (Boston Globe, 12/7/1999 and 8/2/2009).

Charlie Baker was paid $1.7 million for 2008, the last full year he ran Harvard Pilgrim, up threefold from the roughly half million he got in 1999. (In 2009, Baker took home $1.3 million for seven months work, before quitting to run for governor.) Overall, Baker has made close to ten million dollars at Harvard Pilgrim. (Boston Herald, 3/13/2010 and Harvard Pilgrim IRS Form 990 disclosure filings)

Harvard Pilgrim has raised its rates by 150 percent since Charlie Baker took over the company. The typical Harvard Pilgrim individual plan now costs Massachusetts employers and residents $3,100 a year more than it did when Baker started (Boston Herald. 8/31/1999 and HPHC filing with MA Division of Insurance).

The Boston Globe has reported that executives and employees of health insurance companies and other health care related businesses and organizations have contributed at least $263,000 to get Charlie Baker elected governor. Harvard Pilgrim connected donors gave $43,000 of this amount (Boston Globe, 2/7/2010).

Charlie Baker says the Patrick Administration is wrong to try to stop the massive rate hikes health insurance companies want to impose next year on small businesses. A judge recently rejected an attempt by Harvard Pilgrim—Baker’s old firm—and some other insurance companies to get a court order allowing them to raise rates as much as they want (Associated Press, 4/1/2010 and 4/12/2010).