Three activist groups dropped off a wallet and handbag crammed with play money at WellPointâ??s front door this week to protest
what the groups say are outrageous salaries pulled down by company executives.
The groups â?? Health Care for America Now, Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan and Central Indiana Jobs With Justice â?? also inducted CEO Angela Braly and her predecessor, Larry Glasscock, into their first â??Hall of Shameâ?? for accepting huge compensation at a time many Americans canâ??t afford health insurance.
Braly knows that if she doesnâ??t thicken WellPointâ??s bottom line and ultimately its stock price, the directors will find someone else who will. Execs also have defended their freedom to receive compensation in line with market norms.
In other words, companies and executives are reacting to market forces. And they might be able to build a case that paying for top talent is helping hold down health care costs.
Is it unfair for executives to make a lot of money at a time when health insurance has become prohibitively expensive for many? Moreover, do you see a link between executive compensation and the cost of health insurance?
The groups â?? Health Care for America Now, Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan and Central Indiana Jobs With Justice â?? also inducted CEO Angela Braly and her predecessor, Larry Glasscock, into their first â??Hall of Shameâ?? for accepting huge compensation at a time many Americans canâ??t afford health insurance.
Braly knows that if she doesnâ??t thicken WellPointâ??s bottom line and ultimately its stock price, the directors will find someone else who will. Execs also have defended their freedom to receive compensation in line with market norms.
In other words, companies and executives are reacting to market forces. And they might be able to build a case that paying for top talent is helping hold down health care costs.
Is it unfair for executives to make a lot of money at a time when health insurance has become prohibitively expensive for many? Moreover, do you see a link between executive compensation and the cost of health insurance?
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Why do people get upset that a CEO makes so much money? They run a huge corporation and are under tremendous pressure by their stockholders to continue to make this company profitable. If they don't they get ousted.
Give me a break, it is greed! Just fight their denials or find someone with the expertise that can help you.
We increase premiums 20-30% per year even though we had a billion or more in profits! Then they buy more companies so they can continue the trend. If you think the oil companies are greedy how can you not thing the insurance companies are not greedy?????
Let's make billions off the back of the sick and that is ok to some of you? I wonder if you are paying your premiums in full without employer assistance?
I have worked inside those big glass building and I have heard how it works so say what you want but it is greed. I do not beleive an insurance company should be a publically traded company!
WellPoint Chair and CEO Leonard Schaeffer had a change of control clause in his contract in case of a merger. Although Schaeffer would stay on for two years with the newly merged company as chair, he would lose the CEO role to Anthem's Larry Glasscock, thus opening his golden parachute.
According to SEC filings, Schaeffer would receive $27.5 million in severance pay and a special executive pension with an added boost of $10.5 million. He could cash in stock shares and options estimated at about $250 million, with early vesting as soon as the merger closed.
His special executive retirement plan (SERP), valued at about $45 million, would be paid all at once soon after he left WellPoint. Schaeffer would also get country club memberships for 48 months and financial counseling, office space and secretarial support for five years.
I am not saying that we should tax the rich to death. I just would like some equality. If we tax the middle and poor classes, lets also tax the rich an equal percentage. If you get X amout/yr (including bonus) you should not be able to avoid taxes. Considering that you fill atleast (1 million) amount or more in for X.
And Honestly, who really needs a million or more to live?
There are many issues but insurance prices and trick like random denials make it even worse! To program a computer tpo automatically reject certain claims or to close the claims line during the day to train the claims personal how to deny certain claim in hopes they will not be appealed is a crime.
Take them off the stock market as public companies and DO NO let the goverment take them over but give the common person a place to go when a certain insurance company continues poor practices!
They should consider putting together a special team of doctors for unique issues and allow the necessary tests be run without question instead of the clueless running hundereds of tests with little results. Many doctors refuse to beleive a test unless they perform it pushing the prices higher as well.
On the other hand, most doctor are paid poorly and people do not beleive it because they are clueless. Price malpractice insurance which goes up every year with rent while their reimbursement continues to be cut every year so insurance profits look even better.
Yes, I have been around the industry in many capacities for years so I know much of this if not all to be factual.
I am done for now!