Still waiting.......
Posted December 17, 2009
A forum for Ohio educators, sharing thoughts re: their health care and pension system (STRS Ohio). Researcher John Curry manages a clearinghouse of related e-mails, articles, announcements, etc. His daily mailings include many items that do not make it to this blog. Contact John (curryjo@watchtv.net) if you wish to be on his e-mail list. Kathie Bracy: kbb47@aol.com.
1. The STRS Board made a conscious decision 50 years ago, and it was a good decision, to hire our own internal stock managers rather than “pay more” for external managers. In so doing, the Board also made a conscious decision to provide fabulous BASE salaries to these people (which averaged $156,000 for all STRS investment staff members last year) plus a package of spectacular fringe benefits that people on Wall Street have never seen in their lives. In addition, of course, these employees have qualified for annual bonus checks – many in excess of $100,000 – even when the stocks they were managing have lost money. (My initiative to change this in future years, which was first soundly rejected, was finally approved 6-3-1, with OEA leaders Ramser, Myers and Meuser not in support).2. Please don’t tell me now that since it would cost more if we used external stock managers (as if it is some new surprise), that this -- somehow -- justifies STRS investment staff members getting bonus checks for “value added” (even when their stocks lose money). Excuse me but the “value added” is being paid for by the wonderful base salaries and fringe benefit package that these employees receive. The bonuses are NOT contractually required and the board is NOT obligated to pay them……..but they have because of the OEA-supported and teacher-driven love affair with the concept of “value-added.” (I guess the teacher who has 90% of her students failing the OAT deserves a bonus check – due to “value-added” – because another teacher in her school has 95% of her students failing the OAT..........tell THAT to the voters in your district.)3. All of us can come up with our own personal examples of how we are “saving” money by not doing something in a different way. THIS is what the STRS Board naively continues to believe about awarding bonus checks. Because it would cost more to handle the stocks in a different way, then this justifies bonus checks, even though the conscious decision was made decades ago to do things the way we are with tremendous base salaries and wonderful fringe benefits for the STRS investment staff members. I guess my last school board owes me a bonus check because I was “saving” my district $100,000 per year by NOT recommending that an assistant supt be hired. I mean, after all, I had to do the work that the assistant supt would do (which is the same argument that is used by STRS internal stock managers when they say if they don’t manage the stocks, then somebody externally will have to do so ). I also guess my wife and I are “saving” ourselves thousands of dollars per year because we have not tried to sell our house in Chillicothe and foolishly attempted to buy a condo that we can’t afford in Florida. I mean, after all, we need to have a roof over our heads, right? I guess my wife and I should try to figure out a way to give ourselves a bonus since we are “saving” money by not doing something in a different way with respect to our living accommodations.

Labels: CORE, Dennis Leone, OEA, STRS
ions of more entitlements danced in their heads;
nnies he had flung on his back,
e,
1. A list of all the reasons you believe Dennis Leone "hates OEA and ORTA"2. A list of all the things you are saying he made up3. An explanation of your comment about his last statement and all the reasons you believe it is "complete nonsense."
From John Curry, December 11, 2009| Wednesday, 09 December 2009 11:51 |
| Today Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak released a new report which found that 34 Medicare Advantage insurers expend significant sums on profits, marketing, and other corporate expenses. Last year, the insurers spent an average of $1,450 per beneficiary on profits, marketing, and other corporate expenses, nearly ten times as much as traditional Medicare spent on administrative expenses per beneficiary. On average, Medicare Advantage insurers spent over 15% of premium revenue on profits, marketing, and other corporate expenses. Two-thirds of the Medicare Advantage insurers surveyed by the Committee had a "medical loss ratio" - the percentage of premium revenues used to pay medical claims - below 85% during at least one of the four years examined. In contrast, traditional Medicare spends 98% of its money on medical care. If all Medicare Advantage plans had spent at least 85% of their premium dollars on medical care from 2005 to 2008, they would have spent an additional $3 billion on medical care for seniors. "Medicare plays a critically important role in insuring that millions of Americans receive the health care they need," said Rep. Waxman. "But as this report shows, Medicare Advantage insurers are squandering billions of dollars on overhead costs - in fact, they spend ten times the amount per beneficiary as traditional Medicare. Our health care bill includes much needed reforms to the Medicare Advantage payment system. There is no reason for Medicare to pay private insurers more than traditional Medicare pays in any community in the country. That will insure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely." "Medicare Advantage was never intended to be a program for insurance companies to pad their corporate expense accounts," said Rep. Stupak. "Seniors pay Medicare Advantage premiums with the expectation that the money will be used to provide critical medical care - not pay for marketing campaigns and executive bonuses. The disparity between the percentage of premiums used to pay medical claims in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage is unacceptable; our seniors deserve better. This report is just the latest example of private insurance companies exploiting the Medicare Advantage system for their own gain." At the request of Chairman Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Stupak, the majority Committee staff analyzed premium revenues, medical claim payments, marketing costs, profits, and other data from 34 major Medicare Advantage insurers. The report found:
Documents: |
cted decisions made by members of another retirement system (PERS), we have little hope that the legal, ethical, or moral interpretation of fiduciary responsibility within STRS will ever see the light of day. Has there ever been a more obvious model of the fox guarding the hen house!
STRS-literate members and several investigative reporters. There has been little damage control exhibited by the STRS Board and Executive Director. We are encouraged to forget the heritage of embarrassment and move forward. | Larry Kehres | ![]() | Mount Union Collge Division III |