If you go back and read the various dicussions, arguments and controversies from around 1984 regarding the enactment of HMOs it is my opinion that things aren't

If you go back and read the various dicussions, arguments and controversies from around 1984 regarding the enactment of HMOs it is my opinion that things aren't dramatically worse than at that point. Executive compensation is an issue in a lot more industries than healthcare. I think that there are big problems there. The structure of hospitals as a medico-legal entity is a complicated business in most states. When you say "CEO of a hospital" it typically does not bear much relation to what you say when you say "CEO of Disney". In healthcare there is among other complicated things "corporate practice of medicine" laws which prohibit non-medical ownership of medical organizations. So a "Hospital CEO" may often be the head or a chairman of a foundation or entity that owns the real estate that a hospital uses or sometimes is just the practicing head of medice of a medical organization or any of a myriad of other byzantine structures. That doesn't make excess compensation any better but it's important to identify what someones role actually is and what they are compensated for. Most hospital systems are a little more like medical malls than any singular beast.