{"id":18276,"date":"2014-09-25T12:17:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T16:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=18276"},"modified":"2014-09-25T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T16:25:53","slug":"charlie-baker-saved-harvard-pilgrim-can-we-stop-debating-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2014\/09\/25\/charlie-baker-saved-harvard-pilgrim-can-we-stop-debating-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Baker saved Harvard Pilgrim. Can we stop debating it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Globe<\/em> has the column Charlie Baker saved Harvard Pilgrim. Can we stop debating it?<\/a> by Shirley Leung.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that Baker raised rates by a lot, but so did other insurers at the time. The increases, however, weren\u2019t onerous enough to prevent Harvard Pilgrim from growing. Membership rose from a low of 750,000 to more than 1 million on his watch.<\/p>\n

Yes, Baker was well paid, but his compensation package was in line with his peers in 2008, the last full year he was CEO. He still doesn\u2019t hold a gold coin to Ted Kelly, who made out with nearly $50 million a year as CEO and chairman of Liberty Mutual.<\/p>\n

As for Baker rescuing Harvard Pilgrim, let\u2019s get this straight because you\u2019re going to hear a lot from Martha Coakley, the attorney general and Democrat gubernatorial candidate who will tell you Charlie was no hero. He got a state bailout. Slashed jobs. Hiked prices. Is this leadership?<\/p>\n

So this is what you need to know: After serving in the Weld and Cellucci administrations, Baker went off to work in health care, and in 1999, he was brought in to fix a company in deep trouble. He did so with a plan, a firm hand on the rudder, and grit. He pulled out of Rhode Island. He cut jobs, even outsourced them. He invested in technology to improve customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n

By the time he left, Harvard Pilgrim was rated the best health insurer in America in annual rankings conducted by a respected nonprofit. So give the guy credit where credit is due.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So we get the idea that Charlie Baker should be governor because his health insurance rate increases were not any worse than the other insurance companies at the time.\u00a0 Being a firm believer in the law of supply and demand, we are to conclude that Shirley Leung isn’t purposely leaving out the other side to the story of Harvard\/Pilgrim’s increasing enrollment that would offset the increase in rates.<\/p>\n

We can praise Charlie Baker for being no more rapacious than other executives when it comes to his compensation package.\u00a0 I’m supposed to consider voting for Baker because he is not nearly as bad as Ted Kelly?<\/p>\n

As far as Charlie Baker being a job creator, Leung says “He cut jobs, even outsourced them.”\u00a0 Let’s also praise Baker because “He invested in technology to improve customer satisfaction” after he decimated morale amongst his workforce with draconian job cuts.\u00a0 OK, so that last part is only my interpretation.\u00a0 Doesn’t the world have a problem that corporations can save money by replacing workers with automation, and feels a need to apportion the benefits of increased productivity to only its top management and share holders?\u00a0 The Charlie Baker’s of the world are the problem, not the solution.<\/p>\n

Charlie Baker must be a genius to have rescued Harvard\/Pilgrim with his own ingenuity (and a “state bailout”).<\/p>\n

Now, consider the responsibilities of a governor.\u00a0 Suppose you manage to run the government by keeping within your budget, cutting taxes, and laying off people, but the state has a higher unemployment rate, crumbling infrastructure, declining education achievements, and higher rates of poverty.\u00a0 Can you simply say that the negatives are just not my job as you could when you were in private business?<\/p>\n

Let’s hope we never elect a governor who thinks that running a state is just like running a business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boston Globe has the column Charlie Baker saved Harvard Pilgrim. Can we stop debating it? by Shirley Leung. It\u2019s true that Baker raised rates by a lot, but so did other insurers at the time. The increases, however, weren\u2019t onerous enough to prevent Harvard Pilgrim from growing. Membership rose from a low of 750,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18276"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18281,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions\/18281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}