Overheard @: Health insurance execs salaries totaled $118M

Hey pros, I think I may have found an area for savings to help fund health care reform. Data culled by AIS’s Health Plan Week reveal that in 2008 the top dogs at 13 of the nation’s largest health insurance companies raked in salaries totaling $118 million (yes, million) – about $9 million each (yes, million).

The highest-paid exec, Aetna chairman and CEO Ronald Williams, brought in $24.3 million. The distinction is somewhat ironic, given that in J.D. Power’s latest health plan satisfaction survey, Aetna consistently ranked lowest in member satisfaction across all regions.

As the health care industry came up a few hundred billion short in its cost-cutting projections that President Obama asked for, so perhaps Mr. Williams and his colleagues should step forward?

What do you think? Should carrier execs trim their paychecks to help fund reform?