CEO Stephen J Hemsley of Unitedhealth Groups is paid 1,737
times the average earnings of the company workers. Aetna paid the exiting CEO about 1.4 percent
of the company's net, or $18,058,162. Cigna CEO David Cordani made the most, at
$19.1 million. Humana’s Mike McCallister had the smallest compensation package,
with $7.3 million. Health Net CEO Jay Gellert saw the largest pay increase,
with a 35% rise in compensation compared with 2010. Health Net CEO, Gellert’s compensation went
up 35% in 2011 from 2010. Thermo Fisher
Scientific, CEO Marc Casper received total compensation of $33 million. Thermo
Fisher makes lab equipment and other health-care products and services.
Health care in the United States isn’t particularly good,
either. It’s rated 38th among
health care systems of the world.
Thirty-eighth???? There are 37
countries where you can get better health care.
WOW!
But here’s the piece that ties into the first
paragraph. The US spends the most per capita
of any country in the world. To get 38th
in quality!
Why do I write about this today? You owe it to yourself to know your own
health, your own nutrition and lifestyle (which creates your health or lack of
it) and to research everything your doctor tells you before you accept it as
gospel. Follow the money. Understand that the ‘prevailing wisdom’ and
acceptable medical practices might not be in your best interests. They might be just plain wrong or may be in
the interests of the CEOs of health care companies and the vested interests of
those medical businesses.
How do you do that?
The internet has made information more available with less effort than
ever in the history of humans. Yes, some
of it is “main stream” and needs to be evaluated with skepticism. Yes, some of it is sponsored by people making
a buck on your health. But there’s an
amazing amount of info that’s based on excellent science and not sponsored by moneyed
interests. There’s a lot of old
information getting re-evaluated. For
nearly every study that gets big headlines, there are a lot of smart people
with no particular axe to grind who look at the set up and math of the study to
see if the conclusions the scientists (or the media) draw are warranted. One smart way to research is to google
minority views along with traditional information.
So taking care of your health and researching everything isn’t
going to lower the cost of your health insurance—I know. Unless you get so healthy you don’t need
any. If that’s even possible in this day
and age. But at least you would not be
contributing to those horrible statistics.
Does it take your time?
Does it stretch your brain? You
bet! It’s your life and how you feel and
what you will be subjected to that’s at stake.
I think it’s worth the time and brain power. Tell me what you think!
