Health care workers say they’ll begin gathering signatures this fall for a ballot initiative to cap the pay of health care executives.
The effort is backed by a California-based union called SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, whose members argue Americans are overcharged for health care while CEOs are overpaid.
The same group backed a similar proposal in 2016 but dropped their effort when a legal challenge emerged over whether they’d gathered enough valid signatures to get on the ballot.
“We're trying to exert pressure that the cost-cutting doesn't come from just raising prices on people and canceling care, but that health care executives who are being overpaid should have to bear some of that burden,” spokesman Rodd McLeod said.
If the initiative qualifies for the ballot in 2026 and is approved by Arizona voters, executive pay would be capped at an amount 15 times the state minimum wage. That would amount to $458,640 a year.
McLeod said that seems like a “darned good” salary.
“Our belief is that executive pay is out of control in our industry, and you know, these people, their behavior is just out of whack. You know, when you're overcharging people for medical care, and you know, the CEO is making $14 million a year, it's just, it's ludicrous,” McLeod said.
SEIU cited executives at Banner Health, the Mayo Clinic and CommonSpirit Health's Central Region (which encompasses Dignity Health) as examples of excessive pay. Some of their executives make multiple millions of dollars a year.
This year, McLeod said Arizonans will have health care top of mind given incoming federal Medicaid cuts.
He said the public’s “weird response” in support of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December seems like an indicator of the extreme level of frustration Americans have with health care costs and profiteering.
McLeod also condemned the murder as a terrible act of violence.
He said SEIU is investing in this effort out of a good-faith belief that health care should be more affordable.
“People should be able to work hard, and earn a decent living and not have to live in constant fear that one unexpected medical bill or a deductible from a car accident is going to, you know, financially ruin you,” McLeod said.
McLeod said if and when the initiative succeeds, proponents want to redistribute health care funding to increase pay for lower-level hospital workers and make patient care more affordable.
However, there’s nothing in the language of the initiative that would require that health care funding be redistributed from executives in any specific way.
SEIU is pushing an identical initiative in California this year.
SEIU press secretary Renée Saldaña said there’s a particular urgency to “stop out-of-control health care costs” now because costs are soaring and the country is suffering from extreme wealth inequality.
She said the Medicaid cuts will hit Arizona and California hard, but she didn’t say why these are the only two states the initiative is appearing in.
The group intends to start collecting signatures in the fall. To make it on the ballot, they’ll need about 256,000 valid signatures.
