August 8, 2012 in Opinion

Kevin Horrigan

Perhaps not surprisingly in a country where health care reform is so controversial, it was the high-profile presence of the NHS that stunned many American writers. Certainly the U.S. equivalent, which would be dancing health insurance corporate executives, was hard to imagine. Paul Harris, in the Guardian, July28

Hah, hah, hah. Very funny. Its not hard at all to imagine what the U.S. equivalent to your Olympic Opening Ceremonys salute to Britains National Health Service would look like. Im already working onit.

Sure, dancing health insurance corporate executives will be part of it. If youd made that much money last year, youd want to dance,too.

Executives in the top spots at the countrys seven largest publicly traded health plans were paid a collective $87 million for their services in 2011, American Medical News reported inMay.

Picture this: Its night in Florida. Were in a darkened Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, jammed with 66,000 delegates to the Republican National Convention and their guests. A spotlight illuminates the stage. The seven top health care CEOs, carrying canes and dressed in white top hats and tails, prance on stage as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings Puttin on theRitz.

Pretty nice, huh? And thats just thestart.

The spotlight widens to show 94 primary care doctors, in multicolored scrub suits, forming a ring around David Cordani, the CEO of Cigna Health Care, bowing and scraping to honor the fact that at $19.1 million, Cordani made more in 2011 than all 94 of themcombined.

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A health care extravaganza - Wed, 08 Aug 2012 PST