“The CEO of United Healthcare made $66.1 MILLION dollars in 2014…an unbelievable $254,328 per day!”
I was a little surprised at the backlash of the mainstream media when the new administration talked of trying to write a new healthcare bill. You see, I have a personal interest in this topic.
My wife has a pre-existing medical condition that would prohibit her from getting insurance from most health insurance companies. Fortunately, I have insurance through my employer and had it for my wife before she became gravely ill in 2015. After several weeks in ICU, a life flight to get emergency surgery, and continuing care after being discharged from the hospital, our medical bills topped the 1.5 MILLION dollar mark!
Well, of course, I am not wealthy by any measure, and I would be bankrupt trying to pay all of that myself. Thankfully, my insurance paid the vast majority of that bill, and we, with the help of friends, were able to pay the rest of the bills and stay out of bankruptcy.
Then I was hit when my son turned 18 by having to find insurance for him also. The problem is that we adopted him at 18 months of age, and until he turned 18, he had insurance provided by the state as an incentive for adoption. So when I called my benefits representative at my employer and asked how I go about putting him on my insurance plan at work, I was shocked when she told me it would be more than $900 a month to add my son to my insurance plan. For one person! I almost fell over in my office when she told me that. He is currently not insured, and I am scared to death that he may get sick or injured and require care.
As many of my readers know, I work full-time supervising a large police academy in North Florida. I have been in the law enforcement field since I was 13, getting hired at 18. That means I have been in law enforcement for 37 years. I planned on retiring about six years from now when I turned 62, but because of insurance for my wife, I may not be able to do that. I may have to work just to keep insurance for her and my son as I have full coverage through the Veterans Administration.
So watching the bickering at the capital about healthcare issues our country is facing, I am one of those faces they like to talk about as an example of the cost of healthcare. When I was researching why healthcare costs so much, I saw the usual comments—the high cost of doctors, high cost of hospitals, and high cost of medicine. But nothing prepared me for the information I ran across on how much the CEOs of the healthcare insurance companies make, and I almost fell over from shock.
The CEO of United Healthcare, Stephen Hemsley, made $66.1 MILLION dollars in 2014. That comes out to an unbelievable $254,328 per day! The rest can be seen in the breakdown below. Now I don’t know about your thoughts, but who is worth that kind of money? Think about this—cops risk their lives every day, soldiers strap on ceramic armor plates to absorb shrapnel, firefighters run into burning buildings, and other emergency services actually save people’s lives, yet they make far less in a year than this person made in one day! Something is seriously unbalanced with this picture.
Courtesy of Physicians for a National Health Program
Now I don’t know about you, but I work for my pay and like to think I earn what I get paid. But who in their right mind would say they are worth anywhere from $31,016 PER DAY to up to $254,328 PER DAY? I do not know what you could do that would earn that kind of money. The above graphic shows you the total compensation of healthcare insurance companies’ CEOs in 2014. All but one make more in one day than I make in a year!
So when people talk about universal healthcare or changing the current system, listen to them and then remind them that one of the reasons for our skyrocketing cost of healthcare coverage is that some people get paid in one year more than most people make in their lifetimes! Who is worth that kind of money when it comes to offering insurance that people’s lives depend on? Something has to change, as I still don’t have all the insurance I need because I can’t afford it!
