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Friday, April 3, 2015

SOMETHING IS DRASTiCALLY WRONG HERE

This mornings Courant had a story about the CEO of Traveller's, Jay S. Fishman, and his annual compensation package of $30.29 million for 2014.It must have been a bad year because prior to that he took home almost $44million. Aetna's CEO Mark Bertolini was compensated $36.3million for the year ending 2012.I know Traveller's main product line now is not health insurance, but in the same edition of the Courant was a story about a woman that had to stop taking blood pressure medication because she couldn't afford the cost.You can read that article here. Bertolini has also been in the news lately for actually taking care of his employees and raising their minimum wage pay.

People should not have to make a decision between their mortgage or buying medication when CEO's  are taking home millions of dollars in compensation. It is not just Insurance, but many other commodities people are struggling to pay such as electric bills.

Instead of everyone proclaiming "Obabamcare" as a success, maybe they should talk to the woman not taking her blood pressure medication and asking her opinion if it is working. Do it soon though before her stroke happens and she may be unable to respond or answer anyone. What will it cost us to care for her at that point? Probably far more than the preventative or maintenance cost if she was taking her medication.

No one should have to clip coupons like they are buying a six pack of Pepsi to be able to purchase life saving medications. Especially not while the insurance industry thinks nothing of giving multi million dollar compensation packages.

I have a very generic and widely used medication  I take for type 2 Diabetes. I also have a great pharmacist at CVS that looks for coupons and savings whenever I order the medication ( Thanks Marta). She had encouraged me to sign up for a CVS savings plan that essentially covers most  generic refills for $14.99 for a 3 month supply. The savings card is $12.99 per year.

Last year the card had expired when I refilled and when I picked up the prescription , imagine my surprise when the cashier rang up the refill and told me it was $240.00.She asked if I had Insurance coverage and at the time I told her no, but I had the CVS discount plan. That's when she told me it had expired, did I want to renew it. Definitely yes I answered. Several minutes later I was leaving with my $14.99 refill for 3 months, which just minutes earlier was $240.00. That is one hell of a markup.

It just goes to my point that the system is very broken and needs to be fixed and these compensation packages are immoral when people are struggling like this.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the OZ! The problem is with Congress! Deny them their existing Health Insurance and make them fend for themselves for health insurance as we do and the system may change!

Bruce Rubenstein said...

Single payer health insurance would fix the problem.

Anonymous said...

These CEOs are nothing more than modern day robber barons. Sure I know the game ...they increase the per share price the board and the shareholders give them options on stock.. Usually, they lay off or sell floundering divisions to bump up the per share price. So what, its the seat that earns them these huge sums--no man is worth 20-30 mil per year unless he is an entrepreneur and actually creating something good from nothing. Same goes for pro athletes--way overpaid.
These men take these outrageous sums right in the face of the poorest people in the country. Shame on them...the poor are human beings too. Some CEOs give most of their money away-they are real men, like the guy from apple. Those CEOs that make hundreds of times what an average employee at their firms make are delusional and immoral. Just because you may be able to scam the system doesent mean you should. CEOs living like modern day royalty while their employees cant afford medications and the mortgage payment. What has this country become?

peter brush said...

The problem is with Congress!
---------------
That pretty much goes without saying, and perhaps one thing with which all of us across the political spectrum might agree. The "problem" isn't that the legislature has done too little, but really began when Congress decided that medical insurance provided to (unionized) employees would not be characterized as "income" by the Infernal Revenue Servicers. In any case, one thing we learn reading this blog is that government is no better than those running it. Do we want Pedro Segarra, Minnie Gonzales, John Larson, or Baraq Obama controlling healthcare? Why, when the Left can plainly see that our guys are often not competent or honest do we want to give them more authority over our society?

Anonymous said...

Something is Drastically wrong with the north end fire. Please look into...story is sketchy, fire location and timing is just too convienant... a man is being framed. The beautiful flat iron building now stands alone... How convenient!

Anonymous said...

I agree that the fire in this historic building in the beginning of the Northend is fishy. Definitely suspicious!!!
It was a set up.

Anonymous said...

Was there an investigation done to prove the squatter set the fire and/or disprove that their was foul play?
If so, who did the investigation?
I never have seen Hartford move so quick to clear out a delapidated building!

Anonymous said...

The Hartford city government is very sneaky. We will never know the truth just like everything else out the Pedro Seggara administrative.