Angelides Voices Opposition To Proposed PacifiCare-UnitedHealth Merger
Proposed payments PacifiCare executives would receive as part of a planned merger of PacifiCare Health Systems and UnitedHealth Group are "just one example of the kind of misguided get-rich-quick mentality that pervades HMO boardrooms, while providing no benefit to shareholders and patients," Treasurer Phil Angelides (D), a Democratic gubernatorial candidate for 2006, writes in a San Jose Mercury News opinion piece. California "can ill afford to condone HMO executives lining their own pockets at the expense of health care consumers," according to Angelides.
Angelides called on the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to "stand up for Californians and set a standard of behavior that protects" their families and health care. He concludes that the administration "must not approve the UnitedHealth-PacifiCare merger unless the company's executives give up" their "excessive and unearned paydays" (Angelides, San Jose Mercury News, 10/23).