I’m signing my Policy Change Requests tonight to fax to my insurance office so they can increase our deductibles for health insurance from $5000 to $7500 for 2010. That will lower our monthly health insurance premium increase by just $50 per month to a payment of $430 per month. If I just roll over and play dead and do nothing, my monthly premium would increase to $530 per month. So, why not increase our deductibles since we don’t use our insurance anyway.
Although I don’t spend my day searching Google for facts about Regence, my evenings are reserved for personal interests if I so choose. I discovered tonight that Rep. Henry Waxman wants to know more about executive compensation paid to health insurers and Regence Blue Shield is one of the companies being reviewed. TheLundReport.org’s writer Diane Lund Musikant states in her article the following:
Regence, the only insurer domiciled in Oregon under investigation, operates health plans in four states – Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah, and also has a holding company known as The Regence Group.
However, two of those states – Idaho and Utah — refused to share salary information following a request by The Lund Report, insisting such data was proprietary and confidential under state law.
Here’s what The Lund Report learned about the salaries of Regence executives in Oregon and Washington from their respective Insurance Divisions for calendar year 2008.
Regence’s president, Mark Ganz, earned $897,671 from Regence BlueShield in Washington, including a bonus of $550,548. In Oregon, his compensation package totaled $872,665. In both states, Ganz brought home $1,770,336.
The other high ranking Regence officials with six-figure salaries included Mohandas Nair, executive vice president and chief marketing executive, who earned $356,681 from Washington, and $295,140 from Oregon for a total of $651,821.
Another article at TheLundReport.org stated that Regence BlueShield advises its brokers to oppose health care reform because it will raise premiums on the already insured. WOW! What a concept. Nothing like jumping on the bandwagon in advance of a health care reform bill to hedge your bets. Already the wallets of Americans who do work hard to cover their own needs – instead of sucking from the government – are being challenged.
BTW, Regence is a non-profit insurer, for now. Hopefully that will not change or if they decide to become a “for profit” insurer, the state insurance commissioners will deny the request.
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