Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Insurance Rant

This is an excerpt from an article I just read on usatoday.com:

Outgoing Aetna chairman gets a $68.7 million goodbye

Ron Williams had a great final year at Aetna. The outgoing chairman of the nation’s third-biggest health insurer exercised stock options worth more than $50.3 million and pulled in $18.4 million in pay, stock and other compensation, according to the company’s 2011 proxy filing. Williams’ $68.7 million payout ranks among the highest of any 2010 compensation package.

Here's a link to the entire article if you want to read it:
www.usatoday.com/money

Now, I'm not a math whiz, but I can take $68.7 million and divide it by 365 days. Let's give Ron the benefit of the doubt and say that a high-level exec like him works every day of the year. His daily compensation?

$18,821. A day.

I have Aetna medical insurance through work. I don't know what the company pays, but my contribution is roughly $1300 annually, and that's after I get a discount for not smoking and being fairly healthy. If Ron works a 12 hour day, he could pay my portion of the coverage for a full year with one hour's work.

Now tell me again that our health care system isn't broken.

2 comments:

  1. Insurance companies make my blood boil! 15 years ago (1996) when I had Miles I paid my one-time $15 copay to the doctor and 9 months later a bouncing baby boy. Fast forward 8 years and I had to be set up on a 9 month payment plan before Nathan came into the world. Our open enrollment is starting next month and we have 1 company to provide our coverage. I am grateful for what we have - with asthma, biopsies and itchy skin - our family could easily be wiped out financially. But 18K a day - really - really - DAMN!

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