Cigna and a few of its critics
A handful of protesters offered the health insurer's boss, who retired with over $100 million, a "golden parachute" they say symbolizes insurer profits that would better spent on healthcare.
Cigna Corp. held its annual meeting at the Art Museum on Wednesday. I asked if I could stop by - they're usually brief - but David Cordani, new chief executive officer of the Philadelphia health insurer, had given orders to keep the media out this year.
So instead I visited the 15 protesters, from union-funded health care reform groups, who stood halfway down the steps outside, yelling "Cigna! Shame!" on the famous steps. They had gotten hold of a parachute, which they christened "a golden parachute, for Ed Hanway, said Katy Weeks, who works as a "healthcare navigator" helping poor people get medical care at the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. "It represents the excessive compensation package paid to him when he retired."
Hanway stepped down last year with more than $100 million in Cigna stock and deferred compensation, according to the company's annual shareholder proxy statement. Weeks and her fellow protesters say the money would be better spent on paying claims. They also objected to the millions Cigna and other insurers spent lobbying against some of Obama's healthcare finance plans. (From my column in Thursday's print Inquirer here.)