Health Insurance CEO`S Are Doing Alright ! Ya Think ?

Health Insurance CEOs Pocket Average $14.2 Million$
by Mike Hall, Mar 9, 2009

Earlier this week, we brought you the disturbing news that more than one-third of all Americans went without health insurance for long periods of time during the past two years—mostly because they couldn’t afford the high cost. Today’s heath insurance news goes way beyond disturbing. It will make you downright angry. In 2007, the CEOs at the top seven for-profit, private insurance companies pocketed an average of $14.2 million in total compensation. Or as our friends at Insurance Company Rules calculated, the equivalent of the average annual cost ($12,680) of health insurance for 1,127 families of four. Click here for a chart showing the pay of the top seven CEOs. (Insurance Company Rules is a project of Health Care for America Now, HCAN, that helps bust the myths about health care reform peddled by the insurance industry.) There is a growing tsunami of support for comprehensive health care reform that includes a public plan as an option for workers and families who either have private insurance coverage or no coverage at all: In other words, competition for the big profit-making private insurers. A public plan option was a big topic at yesterday’s White House Summit on Health Care. Not surprisingly, the insurance companies, led by the industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and far right-wingers, have teamed up to try to kill such a plan and convince the public it would drive up costs, limit coverage and leave millions uninsured.Why the huge attack against competition? Insurance Company Rules explains: What they offer is a bad deal for customers and the general public. As the United States Government Accountability Office reported recently, people who have signed up with private Medicare plans (private insurance companies that contract with the government to provide benefits to people with Medicare), can end up having to pay more out-of-pocket than they would under the public Medicare plan (traditional fee-for-service). But are the plans saving taxpayers money? No! The private fee-for-service plans are actually costing the public 17 percent more than when the government handles the coverage itself. If consumers discover they can get the same or better coverage at a lower cost, those $14 million paychecks may start shrinking and, who knows, maybe the corporate jets would be grounded. Click here to check out Insurance Company Rules. The AFL-CIO has not endorsed a specific health care reform plan but has established certain principles around which any plan should be built (click here for more details).

Editorial : WHY are these CEO`S making that much money ? "Greed, Ya Think"!