Stacie Ritter lost everything. CIGNA CEO Ed Hanway bought another house.
Posted on October 1st, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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Meet Stacie Ritter. She's a hardworking mother of twins who lives in Pennsylvania.
Her daughters, now 11, were diagnosed with leukemia when they were four. They both needed stem cell transplants and other cancer treatments. The twins survived, but the glands controlling their growth were damaged beyond repair from the treatment. To continue growing, they needed doctor-recommended growth-hormone injections regularly.
Stacie's husband's company switched to CIGNA health insurance, and CIGNA refused to cover the hormone shots. Each time Stacie takes her daughters to the doctor for the shots, it costs her $440. Between the cancer treatment and the denied care, Stacie and her husband had to file for bankruptcy.
Meet Ed Hanway. He's the "hardworking" CEO of CIGNA - a leading health insurance company.
Last year, Hanway made $12.2 million. That's $5,883 an hour, enough to cover 12 of the treatments Stacie's daughters need every hour. He has $28 million in stock options. He owns a beach house in New Jersey worth $13 million, one of many mansions he possesses.
Hanway runs CIGNA, which made $7 billion dollars in the last eight years [pdf]. How does CIGNA make money? By denying claims from people like Stacie. You see, if they had to pay for treatment like what Stacie's daughters need, they couldn't make anywhere close to $7 billion dollars.
This isn't right.
It isn't right that Hanway can make more money than the average American family every hour, and Stacie has to go bankrupt trying to care for her daughters. And it isn't right that a company in America can base their business off of hurting and bankrupting other people, denying them needed health care.
Stacie isn't taking this sitting down. Watch:
Today, Stacie is off to one of Hanway's mansions in Pennsylvania. She's going to ask him to put her up, so she can afford the treatment Hanway's company denies her. And she's not going to take no for an answer.
Stacie lost everything, while Hanway made even more money. Hanway won, Stacie lost, but she's fighting back.
You can help spread the word about Stacie's story at www.sickofit.net. And check back soon for updates on how Stacie's confrontation went.
How many more of these health insurance horror stories are we going to listen to before we, the American people, take our battle to the streets? The politicians and the health insurance industry know that American citizens will be disappointed if the public option fails to materialize in this fiasco called health care reform, but they also know that we will not do anything significant to fight their decision. Would Americans protest in the streets and refuse to work until the public option becomes a reality? Absolutely not. Citizens of other countries demand that their politicians work for them or they disrupt, protest, and strike to gain the political attention that is necessary to make meaningful changes in their lives. The powerful health insurance industry is counting on all of us to accept our defeat of the public option and continue to suffer quietly, which we will do wholeheartedly. Pathetic.
My brother Steve's wife was diagnoised with breast cancer in both sides and the lymph glands. He had just gotten a job so her condition was considered "pre-existing" and wasn't covered. They got the high risk insurance to get chemo. When the tumors had gotten small enough to operate, the Dr wouldn't take their insruance. Go home and die. This the greatest country in the world, makes me sick.
While I think it's totally disgusting that this CEO is making tons of money while this gal is struggling, THIS HAS BEEN THE AMERICAN WAY since GEORGE WASHINGTON and the creation of the USA!!!
This lady is exactly what socialism is!! Big business does not want you to able to pay. Big business does not want you to have money to choose. Big business wants you to be poor!! Why hasn't more competition been available for buying health insurance? Because they don't want competition! this is the whole crux of the health care war. Don't be swayed. Big business wants no choices. They want you to get only minimum care to you have to buy their drugs, and see THEIR doctors, to use their buddies tech machines. The FDA is totally in bed with big PHARMA!! They don't want this lady's children to be healed because then they won't get anymore money from her children's bad health.!! Don't let big business get away with it anymore. SCREAM TO GET MORE COMPETITION FOR OUR HEALTH CARE!
ROAR TO STOP THESE COLUSIONS OF FDA AND PHARMA. BLAST THEM WITH WHAT WE NEED, AND THAT IS MORE FAIRNESS.!!
And how do we do this? BY voting the government congress OUT OF OFFICE!!! Absolutely NO INCUMBENTS!! We must change who runs the show. We the people must run the show!! Not government and big business who are in bed together.
And another way to do this is to make public every single illegal activity that these congress (don't forget state congress)people do!
And the MOST IMPORTANT THING!! We must make campaigning financing ONLY WITH PUBLIC FUNDS!! Everyone get the same amount of money to campaign for their position. Right now only the rich and the well connected get elected..
If we the people truly want to change this country, BIG MONEY must be out of the picture. the election campaigns are about what they have accomplished, how they have tried to make the cities a safer place, NOT HOW MUCH MONEY THEY RAKED UP TO WIN!
Until the people of the USA realize and demand this change, there will BE NO CHANGE, THERE WILL BE NO DESIRE to help this gal's kids, THERE WILL BE ONLY CORRUPTION AND GREED AND CONTROL BY OUR GOVERNMENT AND THOSE WHO ARE SO RICH AND GREEDY!
It's very simple really.
As we previously said in 1970: POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!
Power to the people I moved to a new area where the Dr. screens you before your first appointment and they tellyou they don't write prescription for narcotics, if you say I just moved to the area looking for a new doctor well you can't get an appointment until the doctor approves you as a patient, what the heck is that. Either you are denying me access to care or not. I am planning on writting my carrier and letting them know that before they will allow me to make an appointment I have a prescreening process to see how much money they will be making before they take me on as a patient. So maybe the CEO's aren't the only greedy one's perhaps the physicians are too; you are only as strong as your weakest link and it seems to me that knowledge is power let's get empowered with some knowledge about both sides of this story. Did we choose the cheapest plan, did we do our homework on the insurance from the companies side to see which one benefited the companies employees? There is a lot missing…I am for the government's plan to have our healthcare monitored because quite frankly we have been living off the back of others to long and we need to start taking care of ourselves and not other countries for a while.
It is a person who can pay extras for a car but not for a doctor of their choice that needs to have his attitude adjusted….If their health is important they should approach any medical practitioner with an open mind and not hostility….The attorneys take advantage of the conflict between feelings and fact…..The doctors have enough stress and are looking to defuse any potentially explosive situation…..
I am in the Healthcare field (administrate multiple medical groups). Unfortunately Stacy's situation is very real and we will only hear more of them, sooner rather than later. Besides my disgust at the offensive personal income of these CEO's, and my personal belief there is MORAL OBLIGATION of a developed nation to provide medical care for its citizens, these Insurers and their lobbyists and elected Republican officials just don't get it. …why would they? It would stop their gravy train.
Not only does the United CEO make money from his Insured's, he also steals from doctors and hospitals everyday though United's subsidiary company; INGENIX. People afraid of Universal health should be grateful for a Government run plan because INGENIX contracts (collusion? RICO violations?)with every major insurer and tells them how to deny claims, making unpaid portion the patients personal responsibility to pay. Since INGENIX is a wholly owned subsidiary of United, it is ultimately United Health that is dumping the public with the medical bills. If i end up having to pay personally because services are "not covered" or "not medically necessary", why do i have insurance?
I don't want any private company knowing or having access to all my personal information and "profiling" me …..do you? I'd rather a non-profit government government dept.(and yes it's screw-ups) have this power than ANY private FOR-PROFIT company.
If we don't get universal healthcare, so we have one less thing to worry about, if we all pitch in our portion then maybe we CAN have some peace-of-mind.
Oh BTW, most smart, educated physicians INCLUDING specialists favor the universal option….it is only the AMA and it's lobbying goons who are against the change….they'd lose their power and influence….it's all about power, influence, money and selfish self-centered motives if private insurance has anything to do with our medical health. Healthcare should NOT be a for-profit business.
For every sad story there are thousands of stories where the insurance company paid for the treatment. My wife had thyroid cancer and she was admitted to the hospital, the cancer was removed, she recovered, and is now totally fine. We paid $0 out of pocket; our insurance covered it all.
As for the CEO making money, who cares? They guy worked his ass off in school to get a good education. Then he continued to work his ass off to advance his career. Sure, he makes a lot of money but that is because he runs a HUGE company and has a HUGE responsibility to tens of thousands of employees and 10x that in investors. If the board chooses to set his salary that high, what business is it of anyone? If the investors think it is too much, they can complain to the board who can then lower the salary or be voted off the board by the stock holders.
If they lower his salary to 2 million a year do you really think the "extra" money will go to treating patients that are outside or their network or who violate their set policies? No, that money will go to the stock holders by way of dividends and the company will just show the difference in profits. Plus, the person that would take the job for 2 million would likely run the company into the ground because if he/she was good enough to run the huge company they would not do the work for such a small (compared to other similar company CEOs) salary.
Thanks, this is a pretty solid argument on why we need a public health insurance option. For-profit insurance companies will always put profit before our health. We need a way out.
Ed Hanway, is that you?
The whole POINT is that for profit insurance companies take money that could be used for patients and research and direct it towards CEOs and the whole hierarchy of overpaid, unnecessary, middle managers, advertisers, personal massage therapists, interior decorators, HR personnel and all the rest of the corporate bloatocracy. Companies exist to maximize profits. That's in direct opposition to directing money to costs- patients.
For the same reason, insurance companies want prices to go up every year; they make a percentage of what they charge patients that is directly correlated to the price they have to pay for "services". As the price of health care sky rockets, they amount of money represented by their profit percentage skyrockets at the same rate.
Put it this way- do you want to make 5% profit of a million dollars or 100 billion dollars? You have a lot more money if you're skimming money off a very expensive industry and if that industry is outpacing inflation (actually, causing what inflation there is) and the cost of living, then you're doing better still.
You made the following claim:
"the person that would take the job for 2 million would likely run the company into the ground because if he/she was good enough to run the huge company they would not do the work for such a small (compared to other similar company CEOs) salary."
Now prove your claim is true. Do you think that just because you said it and you like the sound of it that that makes what you said true?
If what you said was true, then there would be no competent people working as CEOs for less than the average amount. There would be no competent CEOs in non-profits. Furthermore, the more a CEP was paid, the more competent they would be. But we all know now that the Wall Street meltdown was caused by the terrible judgement of the most highly paid CEOs.
It may be a truth of YOUR introspection that YOU'RE motivated by greed for obscene amounts of money, but so what? How is that fact about you describe what other people's motivation is? Do you think that researchers working in labs and academics who dedicate themselves to pushing the frontiers of society and science are less competent because they aren't motivated by money, as judged by their salaries?
In fact those people are far more competent than the knuckle-dragging human junk that cratered our economy and were paid 80,000 an hour to do it.
Conservatives think everyone is as greedy as they are. They think everyone is motivated by the same lust for money that they are. Then they build a fantasy world of cause and effect in their minds based on their faulty reasoning then they take to the streets to fight for it. There's a reason the vast majority of academics are liberal- reality has a liberal bias, as one wag put it. In other words, if you are capable of reality testing, the positions you hold are labeled as "liberal" . If you're not capable of reality testing, and don't even understand that believing something, even *really really* strongly - with all your heart and soul! doesn't make that thing true, then you believe what makes you feel good about yourself, or safe, or comports with your private introspection or whatever else.
Conservatives at heart don't understand there's something out there called "objective reality" that has nothing to do with how they "feel" or what they "believe" or what Jesus Christ said or Ayn Rand or Milton Friedman or Ronald Reagan or anyone else. It is what it is.]
Greedy people are make decisions based on money- the more money, the stronger their motivation. That's greedy people, not people.
Amen - I started writing a similar response but you said it all.
I have a Ph.D and earn what I consider good money compared to the average American.
To earn what this guy gets in one year I would have to work 88 years.
It is a well known fact that the medical insurance companies deny 20% of all claims so it is pot luck whether yours is one they deny. They have also raised their charges way faster than the cost of living and, for sure, salaries in this country.
This past weekend I had a number of friends over who all have chronic illnesses, like me. Two of the couples are retired and have to maintain a private health insurance because their ongoing treatment and medication would cost a fortune under Medicare because of its limitations.
Their private insurance takes up 40% of their combined pensions but it sure beats dying.
A Public Health Option would save people like this a lot of heartache and angst.
Oh, you mentioned interior decorators. Let me tell you a (true) story.
I have worked in both military and civilian healthcare. You may translate those as "socialist" medicine and "for-profit" medicine, because that is exactly how they compare. I was just a records clerk, but never mind.
Military health facilities: The most decorated they get are potted plants, the occasional History Month display behind glass, and the odd poster or two.
Civilian health facilities: Go out of their way to get the latest paint colors and designer wallpaper and fancy fountains and gazebos and patios and oh my god where DO they get all that money–oh, right! From their shareholders and the gouging they do on patient bills!
Military healthcare is less than one-fifth the total Department of Defense budget, and that's straight from the Heritage Foundation, NOT exactly a bastion of progressive values. (And they think that percentage is too high and want to shove more of the cost off on servicemembers and their families!!) What's the percentage of the GDP and the federal budget, together, taken up by private healthcare, Medicare, and Medicaid? I'd love to know.
So on the basis of your argument, the President of the United States should be paid about $100 million a year. After all his decisions affect over 300 million people.
The average American would have to work 250 years to earn $13 million, which is what this guy gets in ONE YEAR. Sorry but there are many well educated Americans, many of whom do a lot more for this country than he does and there is no way he is worth that kind of money.
If he is so good at his job then he should not fear a Public Option; after all, it is just one more option for us and another competitor for his company.
I have the best CIGNA coverage and pay 20% of "allowable costs" so would love to know what kind of CIGNA coverage you have that pays 100% of all medical bills.
Typical rethug attitude: I got mine. Where do the rest of us sign up for your insurance plan?
So your wife got treatment. What the hell does that have to do with someone who did not get treatment? Does your wife's experience overshadow someone else's? We would LOVE if everyone got the treatment they needed. Our grievance is that there need to be MORE stories like your wife's, not fewer.
And there ain't no damn reason for anyone to earn over $100k a year unless they've got a dozen kids. Ten to one this CEO doesn't. Most CEOs don't.
I don’t think it was intentional on his/her part, but the poster "Chris" just made the perfect argument for Single Payer!
Chris should also be aware that in the wake of the financial meltdown and TARP, the issue of executive pay is not going to go away for health insurance execs (who are according to the Wall Street Journal the highest paid executives of ANY industry!) or any other execs here or internationally. In fact consider this just in from the Senate Finance Committee:
"Baucus’s panel also took aim at insurance companies, voting to limit tax deductions for executive pay at companies that stand to gain millions more customers from the overhaul.
It voted 14-8 to deny compensation deductions for annual pay over $500,000 for executives of insurers that derive at least 25 percent of their premium income from people required to obtain coverage.
“We’re not going to subsidize a windfall that benefits these companies,” Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln said before the vote.
Current law denies deductions for executive salaries that exceed $1 million, although many companies avoid the limit by paying their officials with stock options and other benefits." (Yahoo News,Bloomberg News by Ryan Donmoyer)
So the "who cares how much money they make?" attitude is one that is not holding sway, at least for the moment - we Americans do have short-term memory problems.
With respect Ingenix, a class action law suit was brought against United Health Care, Aetna, Wellpoint, Oxford, CIGNA and others by NYS Attorney General Cuomo. Turns out that the data base used by the insurance companies to calculate reimbursement rates for out-of –network providers, is nothing but fake numbers! United Health Care settled for $50 Million, Aetna for $40 Million and they paid $350 Million to the AMA in settlement. "For the past ten years American patients have suffered from unfair reimbursements for critical medical services due to a conflict-ridden system that has been owned, operated and manipulated by the health care industry."(Attorney General Cuomo Announces Historic Nationwide Health Insurance Reform - Jan 13, 2009).
A condition of the settlement is Ingenix will stop publishing this price data and the responsibility will go to an academic nonprofit institution — United will pay $50 million to set up the new, independent database.
I have check my state's Attorney General site and while it mentions this settlement no additional information has been posted since Janaury 2009. I know that my employer's health insurance provider, Anthem and the dental provider CIGNA are still using Ingenix re-imbursement numbers, so in my case I am gearing up for battle when the time comes to submit claims for an out-of-network provider - should be fun!
Mheckler
please start a petition campaign to be sent to cigna like moveon.com did for dawn smith. that worked to pressure them to cover treatment that had been first denied.
Petitions are fine but they are a "retail" solution to the problem.
We need a "wholesale" solution or we'll be signing petitions 24/7/365.
We need the public option. Pass along this website to friends who have faced these insurance monsters. Get their stories on line. THIS will be our petition. When hundreds — thousands — have put their stories on line, we can use THIS petition to change the entire system.
We're not going to vote out all the incumbents. Everyone hates "Congress" and loves their own rep. we need to change the incumbents' minds.
No one told Baucus to come up with a plan. He was told to come up with a public option. He grandstanded the whole thing and got paid off by the insurance companies to do so. You think Idaho will get rid of him for it? Hell no.
The way to change their minds is to tell them these stories over and over again until they are shamed into finally doing the right thing. It's the Blue Dogs who are letting us down. Everyone who has a brain knows that the republicans are NOT going to do the right thing. So we need to make sure that each and every democrat votes for the public option. Let's get the democrats on the same page, the republicans be damned.
I feel very sorry for Stacy and so many people suffering from this system.
But it is completely wrong to point out successful managers of company, they are doing their duty even better than some guy from Wall Street or banks.
I was born in communist country and I remember that communist used to blame capitalists country for their faulty policy and lack of success. In communist countries party controlled media, established government and representatives and “washed brain” of their people. They make carrousel e of managers and politicians between government, party and business.
Finally this system collapsed.
In this country “we the people” are “electing” “our” representatives but “big business” is leading as to elect in fever for them, and making this nation “washed brain” in media and public meetings.
It is big time to point out “our” representatives and ask why they are acting against people of this nation.
Let as ask them who their really representing. Sooner or later they will lead this nation to misery.
The GOP “Big Star“ Ronald Reagan once said to Gorbatchov ”it’s time to make communist with humane face”,
what about asking our “the real one” to make “capitalism with human face”.
Just because communists were wrong about communism doesn't mean they were also wrong about capitalism.
Chances are good you will never become a wealthy CEO. So quit standing up for them. It is not going to make you rich sooner. I don't know what they told you back home, but that is not how America works.
Same story. Lost home in 07 Nope, didn't have fun maxing out the credit cards…not a one. Husband severed spine in 1996. Waited 14 months for BWC to approve his Spinal Fusion. i did it all for the next 10 years. Working for very little pay, but making sure i paid on time to my Insurance company. I got sick,got more sick, hands stopped working. Cervical Stenosis, neck arms back. Lost job, couldn't pay Cobra…In jan of 07 heart attack, another one, oop's found diabetes 2, disc prolaps in lower back, pinched sciatic nerves (pain in the butt, big time)kicked an "orthapedic Surgeon" out of my hospital room. Waited 2 1/2 years for an SSD hearing. Did I mention we lost our house that year? ALL MEDICAL!
Do I sound matter of fact? Like I just don't care? I know I do.
Only because we've been treated like LAZY criminals FOR 13 YEARS. I'm tired.
Stacy, your younger ! healthier, your fired up, as I was so many years ago! MARCH ON, BABY NO FEAR! GO! I'll catch up!
c.m.
I just read Carol Myers post - it hit a nerve! On May 16, 2008, I was on my way to work at Cornell University, sitting in traffic at a red light, rear-ended by another vehicle. Saw my doc that afternoon and diagnosed as whiplash. I started half time short-term disability, and trying to work 4 hours a day. Diagnoses was I should be better in 4-6 weeks or so. Instead, I got progressively worse. Severe pain throughout my back, shoulder, neck, unable to sit, stand, walk or lay down to sleep for more than a half hour. Doc sent me to physical therapy. It was devastating and made the pain worse. By the end of August I could barely move and had to go out on full time short-term disability. STD ended on November 25th. 2 weeks earlier, CIGNA denied my long term disability benefits, saying my doctors did not Prove there was anything medically wrong with me. They said, sure, I was probably in pain but pain should not prevent you from doing your job! Then the Cornell Medical Leaves office called and told me that my department I worked in for 16 years had decided to terminate my position if I could not return to work at that time - Cornell is also facing financial challenges I guess. I now had almost 27 years of service there. Thank God I had the option to "officially" retire at age 59 while I fought CIGNA for long term disability. I get $14,000 (before taxes) from my TIAA retirement fund each year for 10 years. Trust me, this is very difficult to live on, but I had to do it in order to save my health insurance benefits. Finally, in March 2009, I had a cervical MRI. It shows severe central spinal canal stenosis, and every disc in my neck except the top one is herniated. No wonder I have had such a bad time! I sent this information to CIGNA for my appeal of their denial. And they denied me again. Apparently their nurse who makes these decisions thinks that having your spinal cord squeezed and herniated discs pressing on the nerves is no reason to not be able to go to work at what they determined to be a "sedentary" job! It is total BS. It will be at least another year before a SSD hearing and here I sit. I cannot bend or stretch, lift or twist without worsening symptoms and pain. My fingers and toes go numb. My Orthopedic Surgeon wrote in his report that I am at risk of catastrophic paralysis with just a slight injury to my neck. But CIGNA doesn't think this should be a problem and I should be back at work. I could not believe the 2nd denial! But deny it they did. And I truly believe that no matter what medical reports I send them from my doctors that state I am unable to work, they will continue to Deny me. They have No intention of doing the right thing. It's a sad situation. I am just one of thousands and thousands who have legitimate debilitating illnesses that CIGNA has refused to honor their policy. Of course, they collected the policy payments for years and years and that's supposed to be just fine? It's not Just Fine and there doesn't seem to be anyone or anything that can force them to do what's right. I wish I had the money in the bank that Cornell paid CIGNA to cover my long term disability - all those years of payments! I wouldn't be sitting here in poverty right now, that's for sure!
Read the second paragraph CAREFULLY. "tacy's Husband's company"offered CIGNA benefits. Stacy's huband company also decided what benefits CIGNA would provide. Every company in the country that provides health benefits to its employees - EVERY company - decides what level of benfits it wants to provide. CIGNA will cover whatever the husband's company wants to cover, and they can NEVER cover things that the husband's company doesn't want to cover because the terms of the employers contract set the rules.
Misinformed sheep fall for the propaganda driven class warfare tactic of blaming the guy with the big salary for something he has no hand in. It feels good to hate Ed Hanway because he makes millions.
Another way CIGNA makes money is by not refunding premiums paid when a consumer cancels the policy. I had CIGNA (COBRA) and decided to apply for a different private policy with another company. That's another story for another day, but that company notified me after 4 months delay that I was approved effective on Nov. 15 and I must cancel any other insurance I had by that date or their policy offer would be rescinded. I had already paid my Nov premium to CIGNA because I had no idea when the other insurance would be approved, if ever. So I immediately wrote to CIGNA on November 7 telling them I wanted to cancel effective Nov. 15. I included a payment slip to make sure they had all the correct information and researched thoroughly to make sure I had the right address. On that part, I was successful. I received a notice from them dated Nov 19 that my insurance was cancelled on Nov 15. I am still waiting for my refund 5 weeks later. Every time I call I'm told it will be 7 to 10 days before I get my refund. So I may never get it, for all I know, but in any case, they are getting free use of my money, no doubt along with the money of tens of thousands of others in my same situation. And all the consumer gets is the run-around.
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Hello…I had by that date or their policy offer would be rescinded. I had already paid my Nov premium to CIGNA because I had no idea when the other insurance would be approved, if ever. So I immediately wrote to CIGNA on November 7 telling them I wanted to cancel effective Nov. 15. I included a payment slip to make sure they had all the correct information and researched thoroughly to make sure I had the right address. On that part, I was successful. I received a notice from them dated Nov 19 that my insurance was cancelled on Nov 15. I am still waiting for my refund 5 weeks later. Every time I call I'm told it will be 7 to 10 days before I get my refund. So I may never get it, for all I know, but in any case, they are getting free use of my money, no doubt along with the money of tens of thousands of others in my same situation. And all the consumer gets is the run-around………
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