Anyone else curious about the executive bonus plans offered by the HEALTH INSURANCE corporations?

[SoCalDem]

They HAVE to exist, but so far, NO news media has even mentioned that issue..

True, they have not yet asked for a bailout, but outfits as big and powerful as they are, HAVE to be handing out some big bucks to a trusted few, as they routinely deny services/payment for care of their "clients"..

This dirty little secret about the whole medical insurance needs to be exposed, but all the "patient privacy" stuff that's been pushed through may be the key to keeping their internal finances unavailable to intrepid investigators..

We all hear, peripherally, about their "conferences" , coincidentally quite near world-class golf resorts & nice beaches, but we never hear much about the monetary bonuses ..

An industry as large as theirs, in a culture of greed like we have been in, HAS to have some pretty big checks passed around to the executives..

[leftstreet]

1. The M$M and the politicians are NOT going to go there

Big Pharma and Big Insurance are currently our friends!

:puke:

[dkofos]

2. We are unlikely to know, unless the morans start bragging.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Of course..and Big Pharma, and Oil, and Haliburton and the other defense

contractors who made a fortune in Iraq/Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I think this is the perfect time to institute some windfall tax laws.
Since the economy is doing so poorly it is about time the corporations that are prospering should pay their fair share.

Last night on Real Time, it was either Maher or Olbermann who brought up the subject of reversing the 100 year old policy of
corporate personhood. He said the officers of a corporation should be held PERSONALLY responsible for what the corporation does.

Thom Hartmann is a great source for info on this.

This might be just the right time to re-visit this idea.

[Overseas]

4. United Healthcare CEO is the iconic one -- 124.8 million in 2005

One of the cruelest things about life in the USA is the for-profit healthcare system. That a large percentage of bankruptcies in the USA are for medical expenses, and many of those instances are for people who already have insurance.

The self-proclaimed best-goddamn-country-in-the-world can't even take care of its own citizens' healthcare, even though it can zoom off into wars of choice extending billion dollar sweetheart deals to incompetent contractors with connections to its reckless VP, or allow shameless thieves to sell financial products they knew were over-inflated and then bail them out of their treacherous failures.

We could do all this, but somehow just didn't have the funds to give our citizens health security. Very strange priorities.

..........................

Here are snippets from an article about healthcare for profit corporations' CEO pay. Link to article below =====

...the next time you want to argue with your Primary Care doctor's front desk about a $5.00 co-pay, remember that he makes an average of $149,000 per year. On the other hand -- using United Healthcare as an example -- your insurance company paid their CEO -- one man -- $324,000,000 over a recent five year period.

.... Some Examples of their pay in 2005, and the previous five years...


* United Health Group
CEO: William W McGuire
2005: 124.8 mil
5-year: 342 mil

* Forest Labs
CEO: Howard Solomon
2005: 92.1 mil
5-year: 295 mil

* Caremark Rx
CEO: Edwin M Crawford
2005: 77.9 mil
5-year: 93.6 mil

* Abbott Lab
CEO: Miles White
2005: 26.2 mil
5-year: 25.8 mil

* Aetna
CEO: John Rowe
2005: 22.1 mil
5-year:57.8 mil

http://blogs.webmd.com/mad-about-medicine/2007/08/ceo-compensation-who-said-healthcare-is.html

[Vinca]

5. OMG - how do these people eke out an existence?

:sarcasm: When you consider the state of healthcare in this country, these salaries are truly obscene.

[Overseas]

6. The poor CEOs just have to sacrifice by making sure to reduce the payouts

their companies have to make to lazy consumers who go ahead and eat donuts.

They just have to sacrifice by making sure their PR firms push the concept of Personal Responsibility, so consumers can fight each other about why the noble joggers and gym rats should have to pay the bills for those couch potatoes who ate too many Cheetos and drank too much beer.

Get the public talking about how it is up to them to reduce health costs by eating more vegetables. Help them understand they must look to themselves and not the distinguished CEOs who are worth every penny of those millions they earn by making the tough choices on reducing their companies' liabilities by denying care. Somebody's gotta decide not to fund that bone marrow transplant and they're taking on that sacrifice, so they deserve a special retreat in the Bahamas and a private jet.

So I guess we're giving them a heavenly existence and spa treatments now because they're facing a ton of karmic retribution in their next lives?

But we don't want to look there. We want the national discussion to focus instead on how terribly unfair it is that Responsible People should have to pay for other people who don't try to eat right and stay in shape. That younger folks should have to bear the burden of deteriorating older folks that ate too much white bread and bacon. This is the land of the Strong Individual who takes care of himself. Let those others just eat cake and die, I guess. They were weak and succumbed to the thousands of pro-snacking ads on their TVs, so why should they be entitled to medical treatment for their weakness?

And in the meantime, those weak impulse consumers will spend lots of money on the many medications they'll need to prop them up until all their healthcare dollars are spent and they can't afford those meds anymore.

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[burythehatchet]

7. McGuire's retirement package is estimated at..........

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/ForSelectCEOsRetirementAndABigRaise.aspx


$1,100,000,000

that's right...

1.1 BILLION dollars

:rofl:

[subterranean]

9. $1.1 billion...PLUS free healthcare!

Seriously. No joke.

But CEO William McGuire, of UnitedHealth Group, a health insurance company, stands alone. His annual salary in 2005 was $124 million, and he has been provided stock options worth more than $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.com. As part of his retirement package, he and his spouse will receive free healthcare for as long as they live, according to AFL-CIO Corpwatch.

http://www.alternet.org/story/50360/more_uninsured_means_more_healthcare_corporate_profits/?page=entire

[SoCalDem]

10. $343.10 million for FIVE guys..for ONE year (2005)

just listed salaries..not including the "perks"..

THAT'S where we get a start in finding the money for a universal plan:)

[burythehatchet]

8. see post 7