The head of the Catholic Hospital Association is a nun.  She doesn’t look like a nun.  She doesn’t act like a nun.  And she sure isn’t paid like a nun.  In this article, by George Neumayr, her salary and benefits package is revealed:  $962,467.  This amount is for 2010, however.  If the raise she got from ‘09 to ‘10 is any indication, this gal will make over $1,000,000 for ‘11.  You couldn’t make this stuff up. 

She has nicknames.  Sister Obamacare.  Daughter of Charity.  Her real name is Carol Keehan.  I prefer thug.  Or goon.  How about The Anti-Mother Teresa?  Or the “Anti Nun?” 

We are surrounded by the charity of the members of the Catholic Hospital Association.  I have written extensively about the billions that the Sisters of Mercy have choked out of the sick.  Somehow in their effort to not make a profit, the Sisters found several billion dollars to blow on a building and spending spree that would make Donald Trump blush.  Where did they get this money?  Do you think they’ve overdone the “cost-shifting” thing a bit?  The shake downs of physicians and hostile takeovers of their practices is another charitable activity that characterizes these “girls in the hood.”  Keep in mind that the charges generated by these outfits are often ten times what we charge for the very same surgeries….and we are profitable.

Also keep in mind that the profits are such at these outfits that some of their executives rake in salaries/benefits in excess of 9 million.  The money these goons stand to make once The Unaffordable Care Act kicks in makes what they are making now look paltry.  Keep this in mind when your insurance becomes truly unaffordable.  Your local Catholic hospital has hired this old gal to get to D.C. and get it done for them, never mind what it does to you.

I thought I had a pretty good handle on the greed and viciousness of the not for profit hospital bunch until I read this.  It has never occurred to me until now to advise my sons to consider going to a convent as a career path to their millions.  Seriously, what an embarrassment not just for the CHA, but for any hospital that belongs to this organization.  They should ponder Matthew 19:21….Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:  and come and follow me.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.