Sunday, July 01, 2012

July 1, 2012 - A Tale from the Insurance Wars

Just thought I'd pass along this little item someone sent me on Facebook, which speaks for itself:

"This is my duaghter JoJo. United Health Care dropped her from my group plan in 2009 and gave us no reason. That same year the CEO of UHC-Group made $770,000,000. It would take the average family physician 4,400 years to make the same amount.


Part 1 of "Obama Care" in 2010 saved my daughter's life. It made it illegal for insurance companies to drop people for no reason. She got the brain surgery she needed. United Health Care was ultimately fined $10,000,000....


Yes we can..."

I don't know anything about that CEO who accepted such obscenely large compensation, nor how he sleeps at night. If you met him on a golf course, he'd probably be a likable person. Somehow he must manage to compartmentalize this stuff in his mind, so he doesn't have to face the twisted, self-serving ethics that are deeply embedded in his company's corporate culture.

It's not just an isolated case of corporate wrongdoing. The UHC-Group compensation case may have been the most egregious example of runaway executive compensation in the healthcare industry, but there are plenty more stories like it.  It's a systemic issue. And it's the system that needs to be fixed.

As the people of our nation rally the political will to do that, personal stories like this one help.

13 comments:

Amber S said...

Has this photo been validated? I have searched online for the origins of this photo and cannot find any evidence that this is a true story. I am sure the photo is real, i am unsure about the caption. It is likely an Obamacare poster. I do agree that insurance corporations are greedy and tend to put profits ahead of patients.

ZenBonobo said...

Carl, I am attempting to come to grips with $770,000,000. There must be a missing decimal point. I have other evidence for obscene compensation for the CEO of UHC but the cited amount in the submission is taking away from the impact. Can you help me out?

Greg M said...

Agreed. I'm strongly in favor of the Affordable Health Care act, and will be proudly voting for Pres. Obama again. And there's a ton of stories about people like Nataline Sarkisyan, who had health insurance but still died when her health care company wouldn't cover her "experimental" liver transplant. But this needs verification--been trying to track down anything at all. Haven't found it yet.

Anonymous said...

In 2009, Steve Hemsley was compensated about $102M. A lot of money, but not $770M.
http://ww3.startribune.com/projects/exec_comp/

Jonesy said...

The story is most likely a fake. The part about the law going into effect in 2010 is correct, the rest appears to be bogus. In 2009, the CEO of UHG was compensated about $9 million. He also exercised stock options worth about $99 million. (per Minnesota Public Radio. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/15/unitedhealth-executive/) Still a bunch of money but not the $770 million listed in the FB post. And see? I cited a reputable source. The FB post doesn't give any sources at all. Not even a last name.

Brandon said...

the amount listed in the picture is pay/compensation and stock options. source:forbes

Brandon said...

watch the video to see confirmation of Hemsley's stock options

http://www.politicolnews.com/steven-hemsley-wealthcare/

Anonymous said...

FAKE!!! Liberals always stretch the truth because they are so desperate to get Obama reelected at any cost. How about some real sources and names not just a random photo with phony claims before you start posting this BS all over Facebook? Screw the left.

Anonymous said...

https://www.facebook.com/ILikeMath

This is the source of the photo, the father has spoken about it in a few posts. It didn't take but 5 minutes. Amazing how rapidly some would believe or enable a greedy CEO as opposed to believe a "lib". As Colbert says,m"Facts do have a liberal bias."

Unknown said...

The Church is real, as is the Pastor. You can even see them on the Google map. If you go to his blog you will see that he just passed on something one of his FB folks gave him. Also checking found that some discrepancies did occur, but seem to be innocent enough, as they were misunderstood. No .. I'm not posting urls' you can go to FORBES, MORNINGSTAR, FACEBOOK and GOOGLE, JUST LIKE I DID.
Thought the amount was too big, AND after checking found that the amount was taken out of context from an original post. Did check Forbes .. he has stock options of 2,735,442 current value is $55.82 per share which comes to a total value of $152,692,372.

EVERYONE - no need to name call .. left or right.

Anonymous said...

Can't find evidence of a 10 mil fine, either.

Anonymous said...

It's in this transcript http://m.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/06/transcript-thom-hartmann-discusses-marylands-health-care-vincent-demarco-18-jan-10

Fe Penley said...

Whether if this post is real or not, the point is that health care services should be made affordable to every citizen. No one should be deprived of their right to be provided with the best health care service. Some insurance companies have separated the business and emotional side of things that's why they can sleep very soundly at night. Health insurance from a company that thinks of their client's welfare is what the people need.