Review: "Blue Cross Blue Shield reports $265M net surplus and CEO bonus" – Detroit Free Pr
This was an article written by JC Reindl for the Detroit Free Press and reposted on Facebook by a surgeon friend of mine, Tray See.
The gist of it is: health insurance companies, which are wholly unnecessary, are making billions of dollars. The CEO of BCBS made $6.6 million in one year. For comparison, I'm a child psychiatrist, and even working 50 hours a week, I made $205K plus benefits; so maybe $220K.
So how is it that a single individual who knows nothing about actually practicing medicine is seemingly valued 30 times that of an individual with 13 years of training and who is licensed?
Yes, some patients and the general public think that millions of dollars go to their physicians. Read the article and you realize that this guy's salary is just for BCBS of Michigan. There are lots of other franchised Blue Cross companies across the U.S., and all of them are doing well.
I know some people will point out that the company paid out $18 billion in claims. Firstly, that implies that there was more than $18 billion coming into the company. Secondly, since insurance companies have a private chargemaster and inflate the prices while paying bottom barrel for claims, they've rigged the game in their favor the whole way through.
So when P.S.Y.C.H. is initiated, what will happen?
First off, there will be transparency. Each state's general health fund balance will be known to the public. The price list will be set. As a nonprofit, there isn't anyone benefitting from the coffers because much of the system will run itself, outside of the day-to-day operations of the general health fund database paying for claims. And even then, all of those salaries will be competitive and known.
Do the math and see which one is a better deal for you.