Aetna's Ron Williams - CEO Compensation

While Mr. Williams is receiving over the top compensation, subscribers to Aetna, such as my daughter are denied life saving/altering treatment and losing their jobs because they are not receiving the treatment that allows them to function to their maximum potential.

Yes, my daughter is finally receiving treament, but that is due to my tenacity and the very capable help of both a patient advocate and attorney.

And thanks to ERISA laws, my daughter is not entitled to sue Aetna in an attempt to recoup even basic living compensation for wages lost and a future as a disabled person due to delay in treatment.

I would appreciate your passing my comments on to Aetna's CEO even though I imagine that he doesn't even care.

This is disgusting when I am going bankrupt because I can't afford my co-pays and deductibles which increase every year because the cost of the health care for my employer increases. We pay more, get less. I have had to fight just to get medicines I have been on for ten years prior to having Aetna health insurance. In one instance I had to stop taking it to the detriment of my health until I finally got permission to start again. These salaries are sickening in the face of what ordinary folks are suffering.

Disgusting. Obama should read each of the health insurance company CEO salaries before retiring for the night. Nightmares will ensue. Every COBRA insured human will vomit explosively. What will it take to stop this insanity?

24 Million a year is actually quite a small figure when you compare to the rest of the crop. Executive compensation at a whole should be evaluated not Aetna.

Steve Jobs made nearly 800 million in 2007 and within the same period oil executives were making in the area of half a billion yearly. Don't see too many protestors boycotting IPODS?

Given Healthcare only operates in a 8% profit margin I find better targets out there.

HR676 - Bad idea. Current wait time for SSDI is nearly 2 years. Just imagine adding 50 million more people into the mix. (good initiative however; bad judgement)

and you expect the insurance company to pay for your bills after you have been out of the country since November 2007? It sounds more like you moved to Thailand and are trying to fraud the Medicare system to pay for your medical bills in Thailand. You should have gotten insurance over there instead.

Anyone making 24 million in the healthcare industry should be curing something. Shouldn't they?

The wealthy health insurance CEO's don't care about our health. All they care about is constanly increasing our rate while increasing their salaries and the insurers receive less care. It's criminal. I would love for this country to adopt single payer and drive this greedy cancer to it's demise .

I agree with the poster who wrote that health insurance companies "do not provide a benefit to the people." We pay over $6000 per year in premiums, and yet must fight and quibble over every claim. Thank goodness we are healthy - for now. I am confident that should I be diagnosed with an "expensive" illness like cancer, my insurance company would find a way to rescind my coverage. I would be left to pay out of pocket or die. I would be happy to pay the same $6000 in taxes to fund a single payer health program where no one is denied treatment.

These CEO salaries are obscene. I am sure the rest of the board pay themselves quite well on top of it.

Aend remember, company officers' salaries do not count, aend are not reported as, profit.

It is time to abolish these profiteering merchants if sickness and death. These companies ARE the Death Panels, these companies ALREADY RATION CARE. Hey, at least these companies protect us all from socialist takeover of our health care!

This current system we have now is what a fascist takeover of health care looks like.

if so many people who have written here have horror stories, then why are they so against what the president is trying to do?

It's the media distorts the debate and the coverage. The give the anti-Obama/Anti-Health care protestors more than equal time. You never hear any commentators talk about our current and all to real Death Panels. You never hear much about the Insurance companies already rationing care.

The Health Insurance industry only exists, in such a greedy manifestation, in America. It is absolutely not a neccessary industry. It has no function other than to collect profits and act as a middleman between the patient and thier doctor.

The people getting rich off the sick secretly laugh among themselves at these anti-healthcare reform protestors. They vote and protest against thier own interest and do not even see it.

I find it absolutely amazing that people find health insurance companies unnecessary. Well then don't carry health insurance. Drop your coverage and you work everything out with the doctors and hospitals. Work out payment plans to repay them for their services.Of course, instead of paying a 20.00 copay you will owe them 195.00 for your office visit because the insurance company won't have been their to negotiate a price. See the Dr charges 195.00 but will get paid 95.00. Yes I do see how the insurance company is driving up the cost of health care. For every new test and MRI and surgical technique there is a cost. There is a COST for curing a disease or syndrome.There is a COST for finding a new way to diagnose an illness. Do you think that is free! What is the matter with people. Yes everyone has a right to health care. NO the government is not responsible for providing a way to pay for it. Where did we get this notion that you are entitled to have help paying your bills! No one ever said, until this year,you have to take health insurance. If you don't want to pay for it then don't! Everyone wants the BEST care they can possibly get but you will complain about how you get it and then you get it and you complain about how much it costs! Are you kidding me? Make up your feeble little minds!
I hear absolutely nothing here about the people who are suing the drs over ludicrous things. There are absolutely times when that action should be taken but most of the time it is unnecessary. Do any of you bother to think past your health insurance prejudices? The health insurance industry does not dictate how much drs and hospitals charge for their care. They do contract to try and keep the costs down for their insureds. Your employers decide what coverage you're going to get. For all the tragic stories you hear about how someone didn't get the ok to have a surgery in time or whatever the case may be there are thousands of people satisfied with their insurance. These are horrible and sad stories but what is their responsibility in the whole story. Many people need treatments that are not approved by the medical society. Insurance companies have an obligation to their members. Either way they are not going to win. If they don't approve it they are monsters and out to save themselves a buck. If they do approve it and it goes terribly wrong they are allowing practices that harm people and are sued because they allowed it.
In defense of Mr. Williams and his company, since when is it wrong to be successful. How many of you have Googled Mr. Williams and read his story. What he did for his company was amazing. If he earns that much for the hard work and dedication he has done then God bless him. I don't begrudge anyone a large salary if they have earned it and it appears he has. Since when is it wrong for a company to make a profit? The companies you work for are probably making a profit or you wouldn't have a job. I checked out Mr. Williams company profit for 2008 and it was LESS than 10%. Microsoft was OVER 32%. I don't see people throwing their computers out of the windows in protest or deleting Windows and creating something new. If you could you would be selling it for a profit just like anyone other company.
Just so you don't think that I have not had my share of issues. My husband was diagnosed with an illness and needed treatment that in the medical society they have not decided how it should be treated. Drs differ in how it should be treated and depending on what Dr you talk to it will be different. We went to many drs and nothing was helping. We had almost given up and we tried one more dr who wanted to treat him aggressively. The insurance company could not pay for the treatment as it was not approved by the medical society at that time. We didn't whine and moan and curse our insurance company. We paid for it. We had to take a loan out on our house etc. It was my husbands life we were talking about. I would have worked 3 jobs to pay for this treatment or sold whatever I could. I am grateful that we had that option. I realize many may not but for goodness sakes take responsibility for your own health.

Aetna Insurance is not paying my yearly woman's exam. My claim was denied although it was made less than a month after being laid off from my job. Is this legal?

This is insane : Insurance CeO's getting millions of dollars off of people's suffering & pain. They are pure evil (insurance companies) Mr. Obama, you won the Nobel Peace prize today, congrats! Please in the name of peace help my country Usa to rise above the demons that rule health insurance.they are Liars and decetful!! Shut them down now.It is criminal

It's amazing that some people equate health insurance companies with people that actually PROVIDE some health care! They do not. They don't empty bedpans, don't take your blood pressure, give you an enema (although they do like stick it to you). They take your money, your employers money, skim 20 or 30% off the top and work hard to deny treatment to sick people. Doctors and nurse do the actual healthcare.

Maybe we should consider as a people a maximum wage like we do a minimum wage.

On October 19, 2009 Aetna sent out a Dear Aetna Pension Plan Annuitants indicating that as a result of the current economic conditions the cost-of-living adjustment yields a negative change of 1.7 percent from the previous monthly annuity. Therefore a reduction in the payments will start beginning January 1, 2010. I gave my best part of my life to this company 21 years. I did not make anywhere near Mr. Williams compensation of $30 mil per year. Based on news reports Aetna made 1.7 billion in profits last year. Why is it that the retirees of this company are getting hit with the measely reduction of 1.7 percent when the profits are up and the CEO is paid this exorbinate compensation? We were the ones who truly worked and earned every penny in our retirment, why are we not getting what is due us?

i truly truly believe that ron williams is no different than madoff, he would indeed sell his mother for a dollar, evil, evil, people

Another third quarter and another string of layoffs here at Aetna. I wanted to see how much Ron Williams made in a year and what his bonus was. Ridiculous. They send out an email telling us our merit based raise is going to be reduced to 2%, that we won't be recieving a bonus this year, that the new hires that are starting two years after me will be making more than I currently do now and that they won't be adjusting my pay to match the current rate a new hire is getting. Yet I find this website and see what the CEO'S yearly take is and am sickened. How many jobs would NOT have had to be eliminated today (5-10 people in my site alone, 625 company wide today--granted not a lot, but still 625 people without jobs now) if the CEO and other officers had their bonus capped at a certain %, or if their salary was reduced? Does anyone really need 24 million dollars a year? Guess he needs his 6 million dollar yearly bonus to do some updates on his home in the Hamptons.

I too was checking the CEO compensation for Aetna and was not surprised. Just went to a meeting with a rep for Secure Horizons yesterday. As he was explaining how much better the coverage was for their medicare supplement than basic medicare coverage, a fellow senior leaned over to me and asked, "how can they afford to do that?" Good question. Obviously they are paid by the government. Business must be good since I am inundated with offers during the enrollment period. I am planning to change to the AARP/Secure Horizons plan since the offer free health club membership. Mmmm, how do they pay for that?

Being the CEO of Aetna, AIG, Ford, etc. is like winning the lottery every single year for the entire term of their employment! Must be nice to be them!