Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Insurance Vendors Fleece Healthcare

Congratulations to UnitedHealth’s CEO, William McGuire. As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, since 2000, he has cashed out some $488 million in options, has an $8 million dollar annual salary, use of a private jet, private perks of a $139,000 annual travel allowance, $69,100 in financial planning fees, and worst of all, 1.6 billion in unexercised options. All at a time with an expanding number of uninsured in America grows and reimbursements plummet to the folks who really provide care: the docs and hospitals. Now to be fair, they do process paperwork and fill pill bottles as middlemen while purporting to “restrain costs” in health care delivery (“huh?”). Though it might qualify as the WSJ’s “Rewarding Career,” this compensation travesty can’t really help our health care system. I only wish there were a way to really fix this abomination.

--Wes

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