WellPoint CEO Now Earns $13.1 Million A Year
Corporate Hall of Shame Award
With the United States undergoing the worst recession since the Great Depression and people everywhere worried about the cost of healthcare and how healthcare reform will affect them, isn’t it great to know that some special corporate executives got a 51 percent raise in 2009?
Angela Braly, president and CEO of health insurer WellPoint, got a nice bonus that raised her salary to $13.1 million from $8.7 million the year before.
Now we know where that 25 percent rate hike by Anthem Blue Cross (a WellPoint subsidiary) went. I guess she deserves the raise since the stock prices gained ground steadily during the year, closing 38 percent higher.
Braly probably deserves the raise for her testimony before Congress about the rate hikes when she claimed the rate hike was because of the soaring cost of medical care and the weak economy. The $2.7 billion dollar profit that WellPoint posted in the final quarter of 2009 certainly justifies her salary.
And it’s great to know that Ms. Braly won’t need to worry about insurance premiums rising or the cost of travel. The corporate jet and $292,036 in corporate perks will cover any concerns she might have.
Congratulations WellPoint! There’s no end to the profits you can continue to earn by insuring our nation’s citizens. Now with the healthcare reform, you’ll have millions of new customers and your executives can rest easy that their good fortunes will continue.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
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