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squirrelingdervish: blog

squirrelingdervish's blog


don't get sick reading this....

Published Feb. 23, 2008

Those of you who are struggling to pay for your generic medicines or wondering why the doctor is charging you a $5.00 co-pay, give some thought to these facts about how our health care dollars are allocated. At the end of this post, there is a list of 23 health companies I found on Forbes.com, what the CEO was paid in 2005, and the average paid to the CEO in the past five years.

Imagine adding vice presidents, Board of Directors, stock holders and the other 200-300 other companies all cashing in on your health to that total at the bottom.

Based on this, the next time you want to argue with your Primary Care doctor's front desk about a $5.00 co-pay, remember that he makes an average of $149,000.00 per year. On the other hand -- using United Healthcare as an example -- your insurance company paid their CEO -- one man -- $324,000,000 over a recent five year period.

If you are uninsured, try calling any one of these 23 CEOs and see if they will give you free insurance.

BTW: 10% of 14.9 billion is 1.4 billion. If basic insurance costs $8,000/year for a family then taking 10% from just these CEO salaries would insure 35,000 Americans a year for five years. That is a lot of people that can be helped just by 23 men. Looking at the companies as a whole that profit from health care, we can probably pay for every uninsured person in this country for decades to come.

The numbers are numbing, which is why we should do something about this.

* United Health Group
CEO: William W McGuire
2005: 124.8 mil
5-year: 342 mil

* Forest Labs
CEO: Howard Solomon
2005: 92.1 mil
5-year: 295 mil

* Caremark Rx
CEO: Edwin M Crawford
2005: 77.9 mil
5-year: 93.6 mil

* Abbott Lab
CEO: Miles White
2005: 26.2 mil
5-year: 25.8 mil

* Aetna
CEO: John Rowe
2005: 22.1 mil
5-year:57.8 mil

* Amgen
CEO: Kevin Sharer
2005:5.7 mil
5-year:59.5 mil

* Bectin-Dickinson
CEO: Edwin Ludwig
2005: 10 mil
5-year:18 mil

* Boston Scientific
CEO:
2005:38.1 mil
5-year:45 mil

* Cardinal Health
CEO: James Tobin
2005:1.1 mil
5-year:33.5 mil

* Cigna
CEO: H. Edward Hanway
2005:13.3 mil
5-year:62.8 mil

* Genzyme
CEO: Henri Termeer
2005: 19 mil
5-year:60.7 mil

* Humana
CEO: Michael McAllister
2005:2.3 mil
5-year:12.9 mil

* Johnson & Johnson
CEO: William Weldon
2005:6.1 mil
5-year:19.7 mil

* Laboratory Corp America
CEO: Thomas MacMahon
2005:7.9 mil
5-year:41.8 mil

* Eli Lilly
CEO: Sidney Taurel
2005:7.2 mil
5-year:37.9 mil

* McKesson
CEO: John Hammergen
2005: 13.4 mil
5-year:31.2 mil

* Medtronic
CEO: Arthur Collins
2005: 4.7 mil
5-year:39 mil

* Merck Raymond Gilmartin
CEO:
2005: 37.8 mil
5-year:49.6 mil

* PacifiCare Health
CEO: Howard Phanstiel
2005: 3.4 mil
5-year: 8.5 mil

* Pfizer
CEO: Henry McKinnell
2005: 14 mil
5-year: 74 mil

* Well Choice
CEO: Michael Stocker
2005: 3.2 mil
5-year: 10.7 mil

* WellPoint
CEO: Larry Glasscock
2005: 23 mil
5-year: 46.8 mil

* Wyeth
CEO: Robert Essner
2005:6.5 mil
5-year: 28.9 mil


TOTAL 2005: 559.8 mil

TOTAL 5-Year: 14.9 billion"

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19 Comments


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It's supply and demand when it comes to CEO's, just like movie stars or atheletes.What we, as consumers and stockholders have to do, is hold the boards accountable. Stockholders don't usually vote when given the opportunity. That's ONE of the problems. There should be better oversight and DISCLOSURE on who is on what board, their conflicts of interest - so the SEC should get off their duffs on that one. I sure as heck don't think the govt. should make a determination on how much ANYONE should be paid. I ALSO think people need to be more responsible about how they spend their money. Medical care/prescriptions are expensive. We know we need to save for retirement but many people would rather drive a new cars and have those $100 pair of sneakers, than save for retirement, or put away money into a Health Savings account.Don't forget about people like John Edwards who have helped drive healthcare costs thru the roof with every multi-million dollar lawsuit they win.
Click to view my profile tmedlin
GOLO member since August 22, 2007
February 23, 2008 5:44 p.m.
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I'll pay whatever it takes to be well...
Click to view my profile wine_girl
GOLO member since September 1, 2007
February 23, 2008 4:54 p.m.
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What right does anyone have to tell a private company or one publicly traded and run by a board of directors how much they can compensate their employees?

If you don't like what they are making, start your own insurance company and set your own policies on pay and who you will insure.
Click to view my profile Steve Crisp
GOLO member since July 3, 2007
February 23, 2008 4:26 p.m.
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Health corporation are not the only big and high salaried persons. IMO every large time corporations get this type of salary. Look at GM, GE, my mercy this list can go on forever. That's what big corporations do. Pay the peons little mind while they fill the pockets of the Ced's. Even when companies are in financial trouble they don't knock down their salaries.
Click to view my profile ladyblue
GOLO member since July 7, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:43 p.m.
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ooops, should be quotes on post below
Click to view my profile Lolly dragging but back soon
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:30 p.m.
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SHAREHOLDERS ARE RESTLESS about executive compensation, and high pay amid middling performance have led to CEO ousters and curtailed perks. Now, investors have more to look at: fiscal 2006 proxies. Moreover, starting with this year's proxies, the SEC has changed how companies report pay. For companies whose fiscal year ended after Dec. 15, 2006, the SEC now mandates a table that includes salary, bonus, the accounting cost of stock and stock-option awards, incentive-plan payments, change in pension value and deferred-compensation earnings, and all other compensation -- typically perquisites. It also includes, for the first time, a "total compensation" column, which attempts to make pay across companies more comparable.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-payPerks07-sort.html?&s=0&ps=false&a=up
Click to view my profile Lolly dragging but back soon
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:30 p.m.
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While I agree that capitalism is the "American Way", I am also concerned that so many of the board memebers who set CEO salaries have that same CEO as their board memeber. The SEC is looking at new disclosure rules to help the average investor understand CEO compensation packages. I do not think the SEC is making this move for idle reasons - there is a little smoke and fire around this issue.
Click to view my profile Lolly dragging but back soon
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:26 p.m.
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"The steps we announce today represent only a beginning in the realization of an important regulatory agenda," SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said. "These steps will provide significant improvements quickly while other proposals are considered. We will be working on our own and together with Congress, the President's Working Group, companies, investor groups and other interested participants. We anticipate further reform proposals covering financial reporting and disclosure requirements, accounting standard setting, regulation of the auditing process and profession and corporate governance."

http://www.sec.gov/news/headlines/corpdiscrules.htm
Click to view my profile Lolly dragging but back soon
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:23 p.m.
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tmedlin: I agree with you on the unwarranted amount of money that movie stars and professional atheletes make. Unfortunately that comes down to supply and demand, and as long as there are people out there who live their lives vicariously through movies/television and watching professional sports, then we will have overpaid movie stars and atheletes. I'm not saying do away with sports or movies, as I know that there are some very die hard fans out there, but does what they do really warrant the type of salary they get? Personally I would like to see the teacher of a classroom full of middle schoolers get that sort of salary, as they deserve it, not someone who plays a game for a living...sheesh!

As for the CEO's of these large insurance companies, well that you can thank Nixon for. It all started with Kaiser and has snowballed ever since. These large insurance companies don't give a rats backside about whether I live or die, as long as their bottom line is not affected.
Click to view my profile justjean
GOLO member since January 25, 2008
February 23, 2008 3:10 p.m.
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In 2002 Elvis Presley made $37 million in spite of being dead for 25 years.
Click to view my profile oldschool
GOLO member since July 17, 2007
February 23, 2008 3:09 p.m.
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