Just Go Read
As I said on Facebook, it appears that Tim Armstrong—who got paid $12 million last year alone as CEO of the dead-on-its-feet AOL—is even more of an asshole than anyone previously believed.
The pull quote:
Until the morning I woke up in labor, every exam indicated that our daughter was perfectly healthy. In fact, had signs of trouble emerged, such as bleeding or pre-eclampsia, the doctors would have had the chance to mitigate the danger, administering steroids to speed up her lung development or hormones to delay labor. Instead, even with the best medical care available, we had no warnings, and we will never have an explanation for what went wrong. This is why the head neonatologist referred matter-of-factly to our daughter’s birth as “catastrophic.”
In other words, we experienced exactly the kind of unforeseeable, unpreventable medical crisis that any health plan is supposed to cover. Isn’t that the whole point of health insurance?
The story has a happy ending. Except that around ten years from now, that daughter is going to find out what someone who isn’t fit to shine her shoes but somehow runs an American corporation said about her when she was fighting for her life.
The next mofo who makes the absurd claim that “the 1% work harder” better have overcome at least what Deanna Fei’s daughter did and is. In a just world, or even the world of Brad DeLong’s Sensible Technocrat Economist *** dreams, anyone on AOL’s Board of Directors who did not come out publicly for Armstrong’s firing would be summarily dismissed from any other Board on which she or he served due to nonfeasance.
Instead, Armstrong is an invited guest at Davos, though he didn’t show up this year. Saving the Swiss being lectured about how evil it is to allow pregnancies to go to term.
The enablers?
Alberto Ibargüen, President and Chief Executive Officer John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
James Stengel, President and Chief Executive Officer The Jim Stengel Company, LLC .Mr. Stengel is also currently an adjunct marketing professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
Fredric G. Reynolds, Retired Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer CBS Corporation
Patricia E. Mitchell, President and Chief Executive Officer The Paley Center for Media
Richard L. Dalzell, Former Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Amazon.com, Inc.
Hugh F. Johnston, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo
Dawn G. Lepore, Chief Executive Officer Prosper Marketplace, Inc.
Eve Burton, SVP and General Counsel of The Hearst Corporation. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law and Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
One might think Mss. Burton, Lepore and Mitchell might be especially enraged, unless, of course, class and opportunity trump everything.
Armstrong took it all back – under pressure. Typical right wing turd.
I feel this very personally. My grandson Nate was born with transposition of the great arteries – the aorta and pulmonary arteries were hooked up in reverse. I’ll make the story very short. He wouldn’t have last 2 hours. A radical procedure immediately after delivery stabilized him temporarily, and at one week, he had open heart surgery.
I’m sure the medical bill was over $1,000,000.
Fortunately, his dad works for Blue Cross, and had good coverage.
Another happy ending. Nate is 11 1/2, smart, healthy, and a pretty good base ball player.
But I guess this makes us one more family of takers.
JzB
It is February, and Armstrong has locked up the 2014 AH of The Year Award.
On the bright side, maybe some of the ACA rate shock anecdote crowd will figure out the real purpose of health insurance as stated by the mother in this case:
“In other words, we experienced exactly the kind of unforeseeable, unpreventable medical crisis that any health plan is supposed to cover. Isn’t that the whole point of health insurance?”
And stop spending their time adding up premiums and deductibles to show how high their total healthcare cost is every year.
Nah, they are the same as the people who constantly complain about their tax bill by always adding up their marginal tax rates without taking into account their effective tax rates.