Why Improving Access to Health Care Does Not Save Money

[bluesbassman]

3. And it wouldn't even be that bad if some of the parasites were even remotely involved in healthcare.

The crime in all of this is the outrageous amounts of profit the insurers are reaping, and as is far too common in our economy, the majority of those profits flow up.

Chief executive officers at Fortune 500 health insurance companies, who have opposed new regulations under the Affordable Care Act, emerged this month as one of the ACA’s greatest beneficiaries. Recently filed financial reports show that average compensation for these top nine health insurance CEOs rose by more than 19 percent in 2013, while several of the nation’s largest insurers more than doubled CEO pay.
Health Insurance CEO PayThe biggest winner was Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, who received a staggering $30.7 million compensation package in 2013. This marks the largest payout to any health insurance executive since passage of the ACA and exceeded the compensation of the next two highest paid health insurer CEOs combined. The Bertolini pay package, which included a large “special one-time performance-based retention award,” represented a 131 percent increase over his $13.3 million compensation in 2012.
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“Families and patients are being asked to tighten their belts in the face of rising healthcare costs, while our premiums are being used to subsidize even more astronomical compensation for the already wealthy,” said Benjamin Day, Director of Organizing at Healthcare-NOW!, a nonprofit group that advocates for a single-payer system, sometimes called “an improved Medicare for all.”
“In contrast, the top administrator of Medicare – our public, universal health plan for all seniors, which is more efficient, provides better financial protection, and receives higher marks from patients than private health insurers – is paid less than $200,000 per year. The culture of excess at these for-profit corporations is incompatible with the goals of an efficient, ethical health care system, where every dollar diverted from patient care represents a loss of access for real families.”
http://www.healthcare-now.org/health-insurance-ceo-pay-skyrockets-in-2013