California is so Progressive that they’ve given up on old-fashioned notions like rewarding success and punishing failure. Now it’s $65,000 participation trophies for everyone!
Read:
The 1.4 million who signed up for an ObamaCare plan through Covered California, and who are paying a $13.95 fee every month for the privilege, might be interested to learn that Executive Director Peter Lee just got a 26.8% raise, plus a $65,000 bonus, which is bigger than the $53,000 bonus he received last year.
To put this in perspective, Lee’s base salary of $333,120 is 49% higher than the average health insurance CEO in the country, and 69% higher than all the CEOs in California, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
We don’t begrudge people for being well compensated for their success. But in this case, Lee is being rewarded by Covered California for what looks like a rather astounding string of failures.
Enrollment in the state exchange climbed only about 1% this year, leaving it 300,000 below Lee’s goal of 1.7 million. And because the exchange relies on enrollment fees to operate, low sign-ups put the exchange in financial jeopardy.
According to Covered California’s proposed budget, released in May, it expects to run an operating deficit of $98 million next fiscal year, and $41 million the year after that. And those numbers assume the exchange can wring 21% out of its budget over the next two years while sharply increasing enrollment.
Lee himself admitted in December that there are questions about the “long-term sustainability of the organization.”
Nice make-work if you can get it.
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