Reform This

I've talked about this a little before, but here is yet another document discussing how rich health insurers are getting while health care costs are rising. Every company this looked at saw a profit from 2008-2010, while the average American paid substantially more money for the same coverage. Bogus.

Health Care for America NOW

And in case you're not a big public health nerd who has actually read most of the new reform bill, there's a section that requires insurance companies to put between 80 and 85% of the money collected through deductibles, premiums, etc toward paying health care costs and increasing other health ventures. That means only 15 to 20% can go toward employee salaries.

Which is good, considering these are the 2009 salaries for some CEOs:

• Aetna, Ronald Williams: $24,300,112
• Cigna, H Edward Hanway: $12,236,740
• Coventry, Dale Wolf: $9,047,469
• Health Net, Jay Gellert: $4,425,355
• Humana, Michael McCallister: $4,764,309
• U. Health Group, Stephen Hemsley: $3,241,042
• Wellpoint, Angela Braly: $9,844,212