UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley was paid $102M in '09

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Stephen Hemsley, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc.

By Patrick Kennedy, Star Tribune

Giant paydays are back at UnitedHealth Group.

Chief executive Stephen Hemsley pulled in $102 million in 2009, with $98.6 million coming from exercised stock options, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.

That's the biggest payday at the Minnetonka-based health insurer since 2006, when former chief Dr. William McGuire collected $127 million.

It's also a big leap from Hemsley's compensation of $9.5 million in 2008, which included $6.2 million in exercised options. He made $5.0 million in 2007, a year in which he exercised no options.

Hemsley's stock options were originally granted in October 1999 and were set to expire last year. He exercised 4,875,000 shares at $28.94 per share; they had an exercise price of $8.7188 per share.

That was after those options were repriced upwards as a result of a backdating investigation in 2006 that lead to the eventual resignation of McGuire, who ended up paying large fines and settlements.

Hemsley retained 1,955,265 shares, after payment of the exercise price and related taxes.

Between October 1999, when Hemsley was awarded the options, to Feb. 6, 2009, when he exercised them, UnitedHealth's stock has split 8:1. The annualized total return to shareholders was 19 percent, while the S&P 500 was down 3 to 4 percent in the same period.

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[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

so?

[PhiLandShiR 18]

so?

They always complain about not making any money.

To afford a 102M employee, I would say they are making more than enough....

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

so?

Steve doesn't like it when rich people get even richer.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Steve doesn't like it when rich people get even richer.

He only loves rich people who dry hump wearing Apple branded apparel.

[Ban Hammer 14,297]

Steve doesn't like it when rich people get even richer.

class envy is alive and well.

[Dan J 277]

Steve doesn't like it when rich people get even richer.

I think it more has to do with a lot of money that we put pay for healthcare does not go to healthcare at all. It doesn't even work as an incentive to run an efficient company either.

class envy is alive and well.

More like disgust of inefficiency and waste.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I think it more has to do with a lot of money that we put pay for healthcare does not go to healthcare at all. It doesn't even work as an incentive to run an efficient company either.

More like disgust of inefficiency and waste.

Actually the money that gets put into health care does get used. If yuo think these companies make their profits off premiums, you're sadly mistaken. Insurance company profits are made from investments with that money that they get a return on and then also from investors in their company as well.

If insurance companies ran strictly off the premiums they collected, they would be MUCH higher than what they are now...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes. On his blog, Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called the numbers "truly amazing."

Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.

As of 2007, the top decile of American earners, Saez writes, pulled in 49.7 percent of total wages, a level that's "higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring" 1920s.'"

Beginning in the economic expansion of the early 1990s, Saez argues, the economy began to favor the top tiers American earners, but much of the country missed was left behind. "The top 1 percent incomes captured half of the overall economic growth over the period 1993-2007," Saes writes.

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[Pooky 3,877]

Steve doesn't like it when rich people get even richer.

Yet he was one of the most vocal people here to support the "healthcare" reform mandate for everyone to purchase private medical insurance.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Pooky

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Actually the money that gets put into health care does get used. If yuo think these companies make their profits off premiums, you're sadly mistaken. Insurance company profits are made from investments with that money that they get a return on and then also from investors in their company as well.

If insurance companies ran strictly off the premiums they collected, they would be MUCH higher than what they are now...

And the funds for those investments come from where? Their personal piggy banks? Their rainy day savings accounts? Perhaps . . .ah yes, from those premiums we all pay to them! Yeah, that is it - they are certainly not dipping big into their own pockets to find the funds to invest. The Lion's share of those investment funds is from the premiums we pay, which is perfectly fine and I would expect them to do so, but instead of returning the profits from those investments back into the services for the mutual benefit of all contributers/clients of those services, they use them to fund their own private fortunes. So, yes, while they are getting richer and we are giving them the resources to do so with our premiums, we continue to get less and less return for those premiums. They are quite willing to 'socialize' the liabilities (we pay) but are privatizing the profits (they gain).

Edited April 15, 2010 by Kathryn41

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Funny how hoarding can happen even in a capitalist society

Edited April 15, 2010 by Sousuke

[Obama 2012 1,714]

And the funds for those investments come from where? Their personal piggy banks? Their rainy day savings accounts? Perhaps . . .ah yes, from those premiums we all pay to them! Yeah, that is it - they are certainly not dipping into their own pockets to find the funds to invest - they are using the premiums we pay to invest, which is perfectly fine and I would expect them to do so, but instead of returning the profits from those investments back into the services for the mutual benefit of all contributers/clients of those services, they use them to fund their own private fortunes. So, yes, while they are getting richer and we are giving them the resources to do so with our premiums, we continue to get less and less return for those premiums. They are quite willing to 'socialize' the liabilities (we pay) but are privatizing the profits (they gain).

Less returns? Please.

Stop trying to pinpoint private insurance as the bad guy. Sorry, they aren't no matter how much you or congress wants to try and spin things.

The insurance companies take in premiums and do invest those premiums. If they didn't then your services would not be able to be paid for. Just like with any other business, there are rules and guidelines they have to follow, just as you the consumer have to follow. Those 'denied' claims aren't necessarily 'denied' for inappropriate reasons and 'dropped' coverage is another BS statement as well without looking at the individual circumstance. 9/10 it's at the fault of the consumer for dishonesty/falsified information. Which your contract clearly states to be open about everything...

As I've said before MEDICARE denies more claims than any other form of insurance out there. Aetna is the only one that even comes close in 'percentile' to Medicare.

Companies who do their job, invest their money appropriately to get returns to pay for the benefits that you pay for, aren't the bad guys here. They are a business. They are there to make money for themselves and their shareholders.

Circumstances of people getting 'screwed' are so damned minuscule in comparison to those who are being treated properly.

But of course the story is always about what "wrongs" they are doing and not what "rights" they are doing, now aren't they?

and of course, let's always ignore the fact that health insurance has one of the lowest profit margins of any industry out there. If you understand profit margins at all, then you'd know how much money they must be spending on their services/expenditures to actually have a chance to make the profits that they do make.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Effectively what we are seeing in the 21st century is that the CEO market is broken. How many CEOs can you name who have had bad performance yet are the best paid this decade? Quite a few.

We are beginning to live in a farce of a society and trust me, socialism is not the cause.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Effectively what we are seeing in the 21st century is that the CEO market is broken. How many CEOs can you name who have had bad performance yet are the best paid this decade? Quite a few.

We are beginning to live in a farce of a society and trust me, socialism is not the cause.

I think it stems from a combination of tax policy changes and the weakening of the unions.