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If we look at the worldwide market, health insurance CEOs salaries stand out even more starkly.
by kerkeslager 7y ago
If we look at the worldwide market, health insurance CEOs salaries stand out even more starkly.
- tptacek 7y agoIt's not clear to me what CEO salaries have to do with anything. Zero them out, and how much money has the American family saved? I haven't done the math, but I presume it's pennies, if that.
- kerkeslager 7y agoTo do that math effectively, you'd have to look at which parts of a health insurance company's structure are essentially waste caused by health insurance being private, and zero all that, and I'd presume that's a large portion of premiums. The CEOs are just the most obvious example.
- tptacek 7y agoI don't have to do very complicated math to add up (or even wildly overestimate) compensation for CEOs, zero them, and see what that saves. I don't like that CEOs make that much money either, but why would I waste time on them? They're not the problem.
- kerkeslager 7y agoI'm saying that a doctor's contribution to society is a lot more than a health insurance CEO's and yet that is not reflected in their salary. It wouldn't surprise me if doctor pay was a larger factor in healthcare costs. But doctor pay is an inherent cost of healthcare, and while we can certainly lower their pay, it's not entirely clear to me what a fair pay would be. Health insurance CEOs, and indeed most of what a health insurance company does, are not only not inherent costs, but active blights on the healthcare system. A fair pay would be zero, with fines for literally killing people. So they're much higher priorities than doctors for the axe.
- tptacek 7y agoThese are arguments about making people feel better about the system, but not about making the system meaningfully better.
- kerkeslager 7y agoWell, I think removing private health insurance from the equation is the first step. Doctor pay indeed might be too high, but what can we do about it? Health insurance companies are a bit part of what determines doctor pay.
- tptacek 7y agoWhy is removing private health insurance the best next step? Medicare also overpays for care, both historically and compared to other countries.