For a politician claiming to value fiscal responsibility, 14th Congressional Representative Randy Hultgren certainly has wasted a lot of our money.
Hultgren has voted with the rest of his Tea Party coalition to repeal Obamacare 40 times. According to a recent CBS study, each Republican vote to repeal costs all of us American taxpayers $1.45 million—for a total of about $58 million.
Question: Why would Hultgren be so focused on wasting our money to repeal a law voted in by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court?
Answer: Hultgren’s largest campaign donors come from the Securities and Investment (i.e. Insurance) industry. Check it out at OpenSecrets.org. Hultgren is protecting Insurance CEO’s paychecks at the same time he is attempting to take insurance coverage away from those who need it and billing American taxpayers millions for his efforts.
Question: So what’s so bad about Obamacare that the financial services industry wants to repeal it? After all, Obamacare just delivered millions more people into their coffers.
Answer: Obamacare restricts the profit insurance companies can make.
One of the Obamacare rules is that health insurance companies must spend at least 80% of premiums they collect from you on actual medical care—not CEO bonuses. That means they can only take a 20% profit. If they go over that 20%, that insurance company must refund the difference to their premium holders–that means you. Some Americans are already receiving refund checks from their health insurance company.
Here are the CEO salaries Hultgren is protecting:
Insurance executive salaries from 2011 reported in a May 2012 Crain’s Chicago Business were:
Cigna’s CEO David Cordani — $19.1 million. Figuring he is working every day (and we know he isn’t) in 2011 he took in $52,328 EACH DAY, or $6,541 an HOUR for an eight-hour day—that is if he actually worked 365 days that year. But he probably took a few days vacation. With pay of course.
United Health Group, Inc. CEO Stephen Hemsley took in $13.4 million in 2011.
Wellpoint’s CEO Angela Braly took in $13.4 million in 2011.
Health Care Service Corp. CEO Patricia Hemingway Hall, in 2011 took in $12.9 million.
Aetna Inc. CEO Mark Bertoline took in $10.6 million.
And the poorest paid of these six executives, Michael McCallister, CEO of Humana Inc., took in $7.3 million.
Unfortunately these numbers are 2011 compensation figures. We all know their paychecks rose in 2012 and again in 2013. But of course, that will come to an end when Obamacare is fully implemented and insurance companies can no longer bill their members for CEO bonuses. That 20% profit margin puts a crimp on that one. And all of you guys get the refund.
Tags: 2014 elections, Aetna, Angela Braly, Cigna, David Cordani, executive compensation, Health Care Service Corp, Humana, IL-14, Illinois, insurance industry, Mark Bertoline, Michael McCallister, Obamacare, Patricia Hemingway Hall, Randy Hultgren, Stephen Hemsley, U. S. House, United Health Group, Wellpoint
