The CEO’s of America’s health insurance companies are doing well thanks to the Affordable Care Act, or as coined by the health insurance industry whistle blower, Wendell Potter, The Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported today on NC BCBS’s CEO’s compensation:
Brad Wilson, its chief executive and president, received total compensation of $3.79 million, up 34.3 percent from 2014.
Hmm… 34% increase in compensation since 2014? What a coincidence that my premiums from his company have gone up 37% in the same time frame and with benefit cuts. Now my health insurance premium is higher than my mortgage. Good going Dems!
Other examples of the tough time Insurance Industry titans are suffering:
In 2014, Stephen Hemsley, CEO of the health insurance company UnitedHealth Group, reportedly took home more than $66 million in salary, stock options and other forms of compensation. If that paycheck seems handsome, it wasn’t. At least, not when you compare it to Hemsley’s total pay five years earlier, when it amounted to $102 million.
And from www.fiercehealthpayer.com/...
The CEOs of the Big Five for-profit health insurance companies all took home at least $10 million in 2014, according to each insurers' annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Payer CEO compensation ranged from $10.1 million for Humana CEO Bruce D. Broussard to more than $15 million for Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. Compensation for the Anthem, Cigna and UnitedHealth CEOs also fell in that range. To be fair, each company performed well in 2014--health insurance stocks hit an all-time high in January 2015 and have continued to climb since then.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini: $15 million
Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish: $13.5 million
Cigna CEO David Cordani: $14.5 milion
Humana CEO Bruce Broussard: $10.1 million
Meanwhile, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is all in for ACA and swipes at the single payer system every chance she gets :
She did not mention Sanders by name at a rally at a Dallas community college, instead saying, "One thing we should not do is follow a proposal that has been made by one of my opponents."
And Hillary in 2014:
Hillary Clinton has confirmed, to a paying audience of 20,000 sellers of electronic health records systems, that she supports Obamacare, and opposes single-payer health insurance.
Speaking to a closed-to-the-press meeting of the "HIMSS14" (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Conference 2014) in Orlando Florida on February 26th, she condemned the Canadian and other nations' single-payer healthcare systems by saying, "We don't have one size fits all; our country is quite diverse. What works in New York City won't work in Albuquerque." The presumption is that what works in Canada cannot work here, that local control must trump everything in order to fix what's wrong with American health care.
Hillary talks tough but not always straight:
When asked during the Democratic presidential debate what enemies she was most proud to have made, Hillary Clinton named pharmaceutical and health insurance companies at the top of her list. But that hasn’t stopped the Democratic front-runner from accepting millions of dollars in campaign cash from both industries in the course of her political career, financial disclosure records show.
Since her first bid for Senate in 2000, Clinton has accepted nearly $1 million from drug and health companies and more than $2.7 million from the insurance field and its related sectors, according to an analysis of public records from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Big surprise, in 2006
According to Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign finance filings, Clinton has received $781,112 in contributions from the health-care sector during the current election cycle, which makes her the No. 2 recipient of funds from that sector, behind only Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who received $977,354.
Contrary to the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Bernie Sanders is advocating for single payer. www.sanders.senate.gov… There might be an increase in payroll taxes but it will be massively compensated for by much less paid out in premiums.
Bring on Single Payer, Medicare for All, Public Option. Bring on the candidate that understands the financial stressors on the middle class and who fights for them.
And to those of you supporting Hillary, just because you haven’t paid more yet in premiums, it’s coming. It’s in the design. The CEO’s will get paid, and handsomely — by you.