First off A Thanks To the Florida Consumer Action Network.
I don’t flatter myself to think that anyone reads this blog on the subdomain of a boring health insurance website, but I guess I have one buddy in cyberspace and his name is Bill Newton and he is from an organization that everyone should support regardless of occupation or political views.
As a health insurance broker (although I would now say former because I spend so much time building website in order to provide marketing to my agents) I have seen and talked to thousands of Floridians about health insurance, and I have one conclusion about health insurance in Florida and really the United States, because Florida is actually a little ahead of most states in this department.
Health insurance is blatantly unfair and prejudicial.
I meet people in the early 60′s who make 50,000 a year and I would like very much for Rush Limbaugh or some other conservative (I used to be counted in this number) to go to their house and tell them that they have to pay $10,000 a year for a plan that is most likely sub-par.
Imagine if that person is like every other American and takes one medication or is 30 lbs over weight, or was born with diabetes.
Should this person quit their job and work at Starbucks?
I am sick of telling people like this that I can’t help them, and I also very much enjoy my profession selling health insurance but I would happily give up the second to get away from the first.
As I have said many times before though, I don’t believe the rising health care costs to be the fault of the health insurance industry as much as the health care industry. Remember health insurance operates on margins and the only way to increase profits therefore is to expand membership. Every time I write a new health insurance client I am most likely taking money from one health insurance company and putting into the bank of another. The same could be said of the former health insurance agent whose commission I would now be taking. And why is this person switching health insurance companies? Because the old one got too expensive. Hence, these Goliaths are beating each other up over the same pot of money over and over.
In the end this issue is more complicated than most of us can even fathom as I cannot even definitely tell you why these health insurance premiums go up so much every year. I just know we need a fix.
So here is the pay of all the health insurance companies executives furnished by none other than an insurance broker on a commercial health insurance blog. (I didn’t want to say my income if that is ok!)
URL : http://www.fcan.org
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=68.143.161.25
Comment:
I found some info on health insurance executive pay at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/06/01/bisc0601.htm Amednews.com
Here’s what they say:
“For the top brass at the big health plans, there also was a wide range in pay changes between 2007 and 2008. Three executives — Jay Gellert, president and CEO of Health Net; Angela Braly, president and CEO of WellPoint; and Aetna Chair and CEO Ronald Williams — saw boosts in total compensation. Williams’ went up by 5%, from $23 million to $24.3 million; Braly’s by 8%, from $9 million to $9.8 million; and Gellert’s by 20%, from $3.6 million to $4.4 million.
On the other end of the spectrum, the pay package for UnitedHealth Group President and CEO Stephen Hemsley dropped 75%, from $13.1 million in 2007 to $3.2 million in 2008.
CEOs at the 7 largest publicly-traded health plans saw a 12% drop in total compensation in 2008.
Total compensation also dropped for three of his counterparts at the largest health plans: Cigna Chair and CEO H. Edward Hanway’s total pay dropped 53% from $25.8 million in 2007 to $12.2 in 2008. Coventry Health Care’s President and CEO Dale Wolf, who was replaced in January 2009, made $9 million in 2008 compared with $14.8 million in 2007 (-39%). Humana’s President and CEO Mike McCallister made $10.3 million in 2007 and $4.7 million in 2008 (-54%).”
These are obscene pay rates when so many people are facing bankruptcy because of medical debt or struggling with medical bills. Its hard to understand what someone would do with an annual salary of $24.3 million — Aetna’s CEO. Sure they lost some money because of the recession, but I don’t feel sorry for any of these guys.
I believe that health care reform is essential to getting the economy going again. We are spending too much money in this sector and can’t compete internationally. We can’t afford to be wasteful. Our health care system is inefficient compared to most modern western countries, and that’s why “http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/index.html” we rank 37th according to the World Health Organization. It is time to change.
Jeremy,
Thanks for the kind words and your advocacy for health care reform. People like you who are on the front lines, dealing with this every day, know how difficult the problem can be. Empty rhetoric on talk shows doesn’t solve the problems or get health care delivered to anyone.
People who want to help can call Senator Bill Nelson at 202-224-5274 or http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm Nelson is on the critical Senate Finance Committee and while he leans towards supporting substantial reforms like the public option, he is not a leader despite his position and needs of the state he represents. He needs to hear from all of you.
Just saying keep up the good work!
I’m glad groups like FCAN are around. We need them to fight for us especially with issues like this being so complex and so much misinformation and bullying tactics being used.