Share of Cost, Stop pretending it was a government takeover of healthcare
If the Obama healthcare bill is just a “government
takeover,” why are healthcare industry CEOs being rewarded with so much
money?
The alleged expropriation of healthcare by big government is,
of course, a major story line of the right and the new leadership of the House
which is planning the useless exercise of a vote to repeal the law.
But if the private companies who actually do control our
health are hurting so badly, why are they shelling out so much to their top
executives?
A report from Kaiser Health News exposes lavish pay
packages for some of the biggest players in the private healthcare industry. Billy
Tauzin, the head of PhRMA, raked in more than $9 million last year, for example,
while his counterpart Scott Serota at Blue Cross/Blue Shield earned a
comparitively-miserly $7.1 million.
Other major corporate healthcare figures receiving huge
executive pay packages were from the hospital, medical technology, and biotech
industry.