The higher health insurers' claim denial rate, the higher the CEO pay

[eridani]

Well, who could have predicted that?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/the-higher-health-insurer_b_3137831.html

When you're shopping for health insurance, wouldn't it be great if you could find out every insurer's claim denial rate? And how much each one spent on lobbying and advertising -- and how much they paid their CEO?

You can now find all of that information and more if you live in Vermont, thanks to a law that was enacted last year at the urging of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

In compliance with that law, the insurers that do business in Vermont have just disclosed data they've been able to keep secret for years. And that information should come in handy when Vermonters begin shopping for coverage at the state's online health insurance exchange in October.

With just 626,000 residents, Vermont is the second smallest state in terms of population (only Wyoming has fewer people), and it has only three major health insurers -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, MVP Health Care and Cigna, the company I used to work for.

<snip>

Of all the claims submitted to it last year by health care providers and policyholders, Blue Cross denied 7.6 percent. Cigna denied 21 percent. MVP was in the middle at 15.5 percent.

<snip>

Cigna, a much bigger company than the other two, reported paying its CEO $3,970,833 in total compensation last year, compared to $1,250,000 for the CEO at MVP and $587,184 at Blue Cross. But the total compensation for Cigna CEO David Cordani that the company provided to the state is a small fraction of the total it provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month: an eye-popping $12,881,495. And Cigna was especially generous in paying its nine board members: $3,199,855. Board members at Blue Cross earned a combined $246,632. MVP did not pay its board members anything.

[HiPointDem]

1. +1

[LeftofObama]

2. K & R!

[Scuba]

3. Mass murder for profit.

[indepat]

15. The correlation between the more murdered and the total compensation package of the CEO

is undoubtedly stark.

[tclambert]

4. Dead people. They lower costs, and increase profits. Yay, dead people!

Actually paying for health care costs insurance companies money. You don't want to make insurance companies suffer, do you?

[dotymed]

13. A good friend (45 y.o.) died yesterday, she earned $2.30 an hour

and couldn't buy insurance. She had been having pain ("woman trouble" she thought) for a couple of years. She had tried to be seen by Dr.'s, hospitals, and the public health dept. in Clarksville, Tn., said they recommended a Dr. but she would have to have cash (I think $800 for initial consult) he would have sent her to a lab that demands a lot of cash up-front too.
DU'ers paid for this process with my sister's cancer (Thank you so much).
Her name is Donna Nabor and I wrote a post in her memory this morning http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022745578 she loved everyone and took in "stray people" all the time, "til they could get on their feet."
She self-medicated with whiskey. I never saw her drunk and I saw her daily until last week. That is when our local for-profit hospital (highest mortality in the state of TENNESSEE) allowed her to stay the night as she was dying. They "released" her the next morning with a prognosis of 48 hours to live.

It is all at the post for those interested.
The ideal of America died with CITIZENS UNITED, it had been kept alive by artificial means for decades, at least.

[area51]

5. And the serial killer, for-profit insurance cos.

are what Obama & congress wanted to make sure continued on, instead of even considering a public option in addition to our current system, or transitioning to single-payer.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

10. Yep.

Taking care of their Big Insurance campaign donors was a big fucking deal for the Democratic Party.

Expect a rider to be hidden in a bill that will make it illegal to do what Vermont did.

It's important to take care of your friends.

[uponit7771]

6. They're goin to have to increase the CEO page and premiums to keep the best CEO talent /sarcasm

[Thor_MN]

7. I know someone who works for a big insurance company.

They were is a meeting where an executive actually said that it would be cheaper to pay a few wrongful death claims than continue doing the process he was trying to shortcut. He had no medical experience and was charged with running the "Nurse Line" portion of the company.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

11. It's not personal.

It's business.

[hobbit709]

8. Well, color me surprised. NOT!

After all, that money to pay the head crook has to come from somewhere.

[daleanime]

9. Its the "uniquely America way".....

[Brickbat]

12. I don't want anyone getting between me and my doctor! Except a profit-driven corporation, of course.

[LanternWaste]

14. Free market death panels

"Free market death panels" (to paraphrase a popular right wing colloquialism) are contrary to the public health.