Say Anything Blog

Me either, Bullwinkle.  Good for him...  too bad for the stock holders.

Think this is  a sign of United’s clients receiving better healthcare?

More likely higher premiums , higher deductibles, larger co-payments, less healthcare.

The sale was made "to support significant new and existing philanthropic commitments"

Cheney also droped a large chunk of change into charitable contributions, this is some tax dodge that is not apparent  yet. Probably has something to do with special Katrina charity rules.

His only sin as far as I can tell is doing his job a whole better than they thought he could. Of course the left will be up in arms all over again, but for some reason when one their darlings actually does steal the money instead of earning it they don’t mind a bit.

 http://washingtontimes.com/world/20041108-125409-5690r.htm

I don’t recall a lot complaints coming from the left over Yasser’s billions.

Think this is  a sign of United’s clients receiving better healthcare?

Absolutely, United Health’s stock prices didn’t go up for any onther reason than they increased their market share by competing against others in the same business. The only way to do that is by running efficiently and managing costs while providing good service. Do you truly believe that he built the business by overpricing his product and providing poor service?

BullW, you think health insurance is a paradise free market choice for clients? It ain’t.

"United Health Care of Florida Pays $4 Million in Fines for Medicare/Medicaid Fraud: "Attorney General Butterworth announced on September 3 that United Health Care of Florida, Inc., one of the nation’s leading health maintenance organizations, will pay $ 4 million to settle allegations that it charged both Medicaid and Medicare for the same services. The allegations concern a class of Medicaid recipients who were dually enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare managed care plans. "

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=84766 

"I don’t recall a lot complaints coming from the left over Yasser’s billions."

Bullwinkle,

Of course not!  Arafat was a thug, a terrorist, a thief, and a hero to the left.  It’s only when someone actually earns their money, rather than stealing it, that the left gets their skivvies in a slipknot. 

So you’re saying that someone held a gun to someone’s head and forced them to buy their insurance from United Health Care of Florida? How exactly does that apply to United Health Group’s compensation package for it’s chairman? If you want to talk apples and oranges we can.

I realize all this business talk is tough on you socialists but can we at least talk about the same company? Maybe if you understood capitalism instead of feared it it’d be a little easier for you. I can type slower too if that will help.

Understand you don’t need a gun to steal. Don’t type slower , think longer, deeper.

 Sounds like the same company:

"UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group, a diversified Fortune 50 company. UnitedHealthcare of Florida serves more than 2.1 million Floridians through a network of 227 hospitals and almost 21,000 physicians. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/othercities/jacksonville/stories/2006/03/27/daily11.html 

It should be noted that the customers of UHC are largely corporations and not individuals, so it’s not exactly true that people directly chose UHC for their insurance.  They’ve been OK for me, for what it’s worth, though.

I’m torn on high executive compensation, to be honest.  At one point, I don’t want to artificially restrict anyone’s pay.  On the other hand, massive stock options give incentives to make stocks volatile--bonuses based on long term profit are a far better incentive.

And this case?  Well, the stock’s currently at $50 for a market cap of about $68 billion.  Profits last year were $3.3 billion--P/E ratio is a little high at 20.  The CEO is taking approximately 15-20% of the profits over the past five years in his compensation.

Given that there are thousands of employees there and millions of investors deserving dividends, I don’t think this is good corporate governance.  In fact, the dividend is only 1.25% of profits at 3 cents per share.  Something is seriously out of whack here.

You’re right and I was wrong, I’ll admit it. But you’re still wrong about it not being a free market, United didn’t force anyone to buy from them, they have competitors. People are free to choose who they buy their insurance from and stupid if they don’t.

For what it’s worth, this guy is now endorsing the end of stock options for his company’s executives. 

http://www.startribune.com/535/story/377692.html

Seems that somebody in Minnetonka is getting some heat about executives taking a huge portion of profits as their own....and getting suspiciously fortuitous timing on the vesting of their stock options to boot. 

Again, this is not a crime, but if executives are taking the lion’s share of the profits as their own compensation, they’re saying some things to their subordinates, investors, and customers, and none of them are printable.  They’re right to revisit their decisions here.

It’s a hand out. 

He already got paid for the work, now he’s getting paid "more for the same."

If it’s not acceptable at the bottom, the same should hold true at the top. 

I hate to nearly agree with Woof, but a doctor friend of mine does note that, due to the extreme pressure from insurance companies (including government insurance like Medicare), it’s getting harder and harder for clinics to make ends meet.  Look at your insurance statements and compare the "listed price" versus what the insurance company actually pays. 

Keep in mind here that the bill which authorized HMOs specifically exempted them from antitrust action.  So practices which are prohibited to Micro$oft are allowed for UHC and others.  One can argue that it’s not  exactly a free market, to put it mildly.

And again, I  have no problem with hefty bonuses to executives--as long as other workers and the investors are not left out.  In UHC’s case, it’s arguable that these other groups are largely being left out of the game.

A handout is something for nothing, payment made to fulfill contractual obligations that all parties agreed to for sevices rendered is not a handout. If the board at United Health made a bad deal it’s their problem and calling it a handout doesn’t change that.

Whats the meaning of ‘is’ anyways?

Disclaimer:   Sorry as I am an interested party and my view is blatantly anti-insurance company ceo’s taking incredibly huge profits.....

 Everyone complains about the cost of healthcare in our society.  The healthcare dollar is an ever increasing part of our yearly expenditures.  A company that can come in and, for no service other than acting as a clearinghouse--taking one dollar given by a purchaser/employer/patient and turning that into much less than one dollar given to a provider/practitioner/doctor only acts as a leech on the system.  3.3 Billion dollars in profit is that much less spent on things important to our society.  1.3 billion dollars given to a CEO of a corporation because of his ‘excellence’ in managing profit (taking money from people spending it to provide for their own health) is simply sickening.   There is no excuse for that type of rapaciousness other than pure, unadulterated greed.

(Ok, now I feel better)

Eric, one could just as well note that the money devoted to your wages is money that could be better spent elsewhere in society.  It could house two or three families, or probably a few dozen in Africa.  Are you ready to work for free because profit is "evil"?  Your wages are, after all, representative of the profit of your work.

I am a provider for United Health Care.  In the past two years they have cut reimbursement fees to my profession by 28% and 24% over the last two years.  Yet patients co-pays have doubled resulting in the doctor recieving more from the patient than United.  Not only that, they have shipped the people you call to get patients benefits overseas which means you cant understand a word that they are even saying and in some cases the person answering the phone can’t understand english.  I’m not joking.  On top of all of this patients plans usually allow 24 visits a year up to 3 modalities per visit.  However, United subcontracts these benefits to another company who never allows 3 modalities and rarely allows the 24 visits no matter how medically necessary the treatment is.  This is currently resulting in several lawsuits across the US.  This is reviewed by an out of state doctor in most cases without ever requesting the treating doctor’s notes.  I have had patients extremely upset with the fact that there benefits say one thing only to realize that they really don’t have them when they need them.  I have had patients call to speak with the Dr. dictating their care only to find that it’s Uniteds policy not to allow the patient to talk directly to the Dr. in charge of their benefits.  The CEO of United makes $60,000 per hour based on a 40 hour work week.  He made more money in 6.5 hours of work (golf) than I grossed as a business in all of 2005 treating 200 patients per week.  Take the net income and he surpassed that in 3 hours of golf.  You think that this isn’t affecting healthcare you’re crazy.  Already hospitals are dropping insurance plans because of increased paperwork and decreased reimbursment.  Many Doctors are converting to all cash practices.  This will ultimately result in more and more out of pocket expense to the patients and higher and higher deductibles and premiums.  The CEO knows he better make as much money as he can because it’s only a matter of time before they ruin quality health care in the Great USA.