New record for CEO Gluttony :1.6 BILLION DOLLARS for 14 years work

[n2doc]

New Record for CEO Gluttony: Last week William McGuire, CEO of insurer UnitedHealth and a centerpiece of the latest corporate-boardroom scandal (backdated stock options) agreed to leave the company. The Wall Street Journal estimated that for his 14 years running UnitedHealth, McGuire pocketed a total of about $1.6 billion. That's $457,000 per day, or $57,000 per working hour. So McGuire paid himself more per hour than the median American annual household income. And this was during a period when UnitedHealth was cutting benefits to those it insures, cutting benefits received by its own workers, and cutting payments to physicians and hospitals for health care. Obviously this greedy little man is beyond disgrace: To experience disgrace, one must have a conscience. But why isn't McGuire's $1.6 billion simply considered theft from shareholders? UnitedHealth is a public company, and there is no possibility the fantastic amount was justified by market forces -- that is, that the UnitedHealth board could not have found a similarly qualified CEO for less than $1.6 billion.

link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/061024

(Amazing to see an ESPN guy with a progressive attitude!)

[Rex]

1. $57,000 per hour.

How many living wages is that? :eyes:

[maveric]

17. Thats almost as much as A-Rod makes!

At least A-Rod is somewhat entertaining.

[n2doc]

24. He makes A rod look like a piker

A rod's contract was for 252 million over 10 years. This guy made over 4 times that over the equivalent period.

[whistle]

18. It is 10,000 minimum wage employees, but for a living wage...

...a person should be making about $15.00 per hour or about $32,000 a year before taxes. So this CEO has taken away the potential from about 3,333 people from making a decent wage to live on. There is absolutely nothing that any one person does which is at any level of responsibility which gives them the right to make a salary which is the equivalent of the full year's labor of 3,333 workers, especially when it means depriving such workers and their dependents from having adequate and complete health care which has been the general policy of United HealthCare Insurance under the watch of this CEO for the past 16 years.

[datadiva]

2. Oh I don't know

isn't that where Keith Olbermann came from? Just sayin.

[Mr Rabble]

5. er, ESPN?

[tkmorris]

10. Yep

Olberman used to be on SportCenter way back when, opposite Chris Berman most often IIRC.

[Mr Rabble]

12. I know. I was responding to a bit of a piss take.

See the post above mine. The poster seems to be implying that Keith was a healthcare tycoon at some point...

[IWantAChange]

3. Healthcare and GOP?? say it aint so

Geez - Medicare prescription Bill written by big pharma - big donations to the Repugs - heck, what's 1.6 billion over 14 years amongst friends?? Remember - all of us can stop the culture of greed and turn the corner starting with the mid-term elections.

[dflprincess]

4. In addition, McGuire's severance package will pay him

a lump sum of around $6 million, and he will receive a pension of $5 million per year (this is more than what is base annual salary was). Several of us who used to work for UHG have discussed renegotiating the severance packages we received.

Meanwhile, UHG's employees still get lousy raise, have their benefits cut and only have a 401K program, no pension.

[Yavin4]

6. In McGuire's defense, Have You Seen The Prices of Hookers and Coke?

We're talking high class hookers and grade-A coke, now.

[DrDebug]

20. Even Georges Simenon didn't spend that much on hookers

And he is still the master with 10,000 prostitutes... The poor man needed to relax three times a day for 64 years.

"I literally suffered from knowing that there were millions of women in the world that I would never know."



http://www.trussel.com/maig/people80.htm

[ThomCat]

7. This should be considered theft from

shareholders and customers! There is no possible way that this guy contributed that much value to the company. x(

[Yavin4]

8. That Surely Answers The Question about the High Cost of Healthcare

That money came directly from millions of Americans and deductions from their paychecks. I wonder how many families in a healthcare crisis were turned down for coverage by this HMO.

Oh, I forgot, socialized medicine is much worse. :sarcasm:

[ThomCat]

11. I was one of them.

This asshole's company denied a medical test my neurologist wanted, claiming it wasn't "medically necessary." As if my neurologist orders tests for shits and giggles. x(

The cost of our insurance has more than doubled in the past few years, our co-pays and deductibles have gone up, and we have more restrictions than ever regarding who we can see. For this bullshit he's giving himself more money per hour than most families earn in a year.
:nuke:

[WinkyDink]

9. "Obscene" is so inadequate a word for such evil.

[burythehatchet]

13. Take a moment to

consider the direct consequence of private health delivery. If there was a single payer system this expense would not exist. There is no public good that accrues from Mr. McGuire's services to United Healthcare.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

14. I'm sure he was AT LEAST as productive as 10,857 minimum wage earners

:eyes:

[Keepontruking]

15. Well...........

You know those sick people with cancer and all didn't really
need that chemo and all and the rest of those people didn't
need all those tests and meds ...He needed a lifestyle!!! 
What are you people thinking . That humanity and compassion
count for something?????  That is why medical people should be
the CEO's...They have a calling to help!!!!!!!!!!!!  Circus
Girl

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Corporate welfare! Disgusting!

[Generic Other]

19. I hope he contracts a painful incurable disease that isn't covered

under his insurance plan. I hope his financial adviser cleans out his bank account leaving him swimming in debt. That his wife leaves him for a wealthier, more handsome younger man. That he's struck by lightning on a golf course. That he's the victim of a random and vicious crime. That he contracts hemorroids and shingles. That he's falsely imprisoned for embezzling. That he goes bald and has to wear a badly fitting toupee. That even viagra makes him go limp.

[Hav]

21. .

57k an hour...I'd kill to earn that much in a year.
Jesus, over 2 millions a week? That's unreal.

[Sabriel]

26. Let's see...what did I make the last 14 years?

I estimate about $425,000.

Of course, that was gross.

But not as gross as $57,000/hour.

[mojowork_n]

22. He may have been the guy who figured out how to rip off employees with bad ...

...medical histories. I have a friend who was treated for breast cancer. She had been the phone system point person/receptionist at the small, industrial sales office where she worked. When the owner decided to install a 20K, fully digital, PC-based phone system, she was automated out of a job. The funny thing was that right after that, on her next 3 jobs, Terri would get hired, get rave reviews for 3 months, then as soon as she was past the probationary period and included with the health insurance enrollment, the bad news came down that the company 'reluctantly' had to let her go. (Without much more explanation than that.)

Of course, persuant to the statutes and provisions of the Federal HIPA law (?) ("Health Insurance Privacy Act"???), that kind of thing would be illegal, because employers aren't supposed to be able to screen out new employees with suspiciously thick medical history folders. But it kept happening, three times in a row. And she thought the same medical insurance group was always involved. (No, I can't say for sure which medical insurer was involved. I can't remember.)

Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was just another case of WWB--FWF (Working While Black--For White Folks) but it sure made paying bills tough. I've always wondered if there were ways to tag or detect employee health histories, and if anyone at all is watching over the guardians of the system, who are supposed to be "protecting" the secrecy of our medical information.

[ThomCat]

25. There is.

There is an information clearing house that all insurance carriers use. They send everybody's information there, and everybody checks there before taking on a new policy. Supposedly this clearinghouse is there to prevent fraud, but it's primary purpose seems to be to allow every insurance company to alert every other insurance company about anyone who has a preexisting medical history.
x(

[Blue_Tires]

23. didn't I choose the wrong career!

:wtf: