The Wonk Room v. AHIP on Insurer Profits
Filed under: Private Insurance, Public Plan
Sheet Music, Photo of Al Bernard, Singer and Vaudeville Star (1920)
Very interesting article by Igor Volsky over at The Wonk Room on Health Insurer profits and the recent campaign by AHIP to “contextualize” those numbers. I highly recommend you take a look, as Volsky puts Insurer profit, medical loss ratios and CEO compensation in a readily digestible (even if sickening) format while taking AHIP’s “Fact Check” to task.
I do, however, have a contention: for CEO compensation, the source relied upon–Modern Health Care– failed to include “Options Granted” during the course of the year. Not merely a matter of accounting, for someone like Ronald A. Williams of Aetna, that number added $13,537,365 to his Compensation of “10.8 million.” Add in the $101,487 for “personal use of a corporate aircraft and vehicle, as well as financial planning and 401(k) company matches” and we then have Total Compensation in 2008 for Mr. Williams of $24,300,112 — or, as we’ve posted before, $467,309.85 Per Week.
You can read The Wonk Room article here:
Health Insurance Industry Fudges Data To Downplay Its Astronomical Profits
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