Isn't this what we really need in Health Care Reform?
Asked by
Cruiser (
40449
)
March 17th, 2010
Blue Cross’s top exec’s got an average 48% increase in compensation last year! HS! How much money do these people really need? I understand keeping the best and the brightest but this is a non-profit company!! No wonder our premiums go up 30% a year! I was upset before but now I am really pissed!
Should these execs be paid in the millions to run a non-profit company when we are paying insurance premiums as high as they are these days? Isn’t this where we should be focusing our attention for health care reform??
“Patricia Hemingway Hall, CEO of Health Care Service Corp., saw her total compensation jump 62% in 2009, to $8.7 million, according to a recent company regulatory filing. Predecessor Ray McCaskey’s $15.7-million payment was bonus compensation built up in the years preceding his 2008 retirement. Aetna CEO Ronald Williams’ $24.3 million.”
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=33126
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8 Answers
Yes, it is a part of the puzzle that needs to be addressed, but that is hard to do in a capitalist economy.
Oh man, I bet you’re opening a can of worms with this question. Good luck.
Damn right. People who choose to work in healthcare, & by that I mean all aspects whether that be on the insurance side, clinical side, drug development etc should be doing it, at least partially, out of the desire to help people. Screw capitalism, if people only want to make money out of healthcare then they can f*ck-off, in my opinion!
Thank you for sharing this. Yes, this is why we need reform. Well, it’s just one of the reasons.
Hope you have called your Representative to insist on Health Care Reform!
Nonsense. If you want good management of anything, you’ll have to pay for it. Perhaps you could get healthcare from a Danish company, where executive salaries are restricted by law to a certain multiple of “average” salaries. But I don’t see many Danish healthcare companies in the US market.
A manager of a nonprofit organization as big as Blue Cross has to have the same skill set and qualifications as a manager of a for-profit company, and will demand compensation in accordance with that skill set—or go elsewhere.
Considering that even a weak-hitting second string shortstop in Major League Baseball can get almost the same money for sitting on his ass for most of a seven-month playing season, this doesn’t sound so out of line, either.
If you want to compensate this executive the same way we compensate civil service bureaucrats and politicians, then that’s who you’ll get to run Blue Cross. What a wonderful day that will be, eh?
You left out the BC commercials on television. we know what BC is and do not need to be reminded in a tv ad. i wonder how much money is spent on tv advertisiong for BC?
@CyanoticWasp If you read the article it highlights the disparity of the compensation of for profits against these crazy packages of BCBS. I am not against free market capitalism and the current insurance market is anything but free. Opening up the ability to buy across state lines will allow me to shop and obtain lower rates and navigate around BSBC monopoly in my state. My company last year switched from BSBC to Aetna to escape their high rates and guess what Aetna did at renewal time?? Raised my rates 20% and now I see why!
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