Whale-watching trips, big pay packages, and European travel: Why your health insurance is costing a bomb

Most of DC seems to have forgotten about December’s end of year drama involving potential extended, expanded Obamacare subsidies, with all the focus on now seeming to be on whether or not the Trump administration is going to invade Greenland for reasons.

But a lot of Ohioans remain pissed off about how much we’re paying for health insurance– and livid at the companies charging the rates.

If you live in or around Dayton, you’ve got to read the Daily News’ big scoop on Kettering Health. There is zero chance this kind of BS hasn’t been translating into high insurance costs over the course of years. If Kettering is in your plan, you’re probably still paying for this kind of crap today– or at least your employer is.

The spoiler? Your health insurance is costing a bomb because you’re subsidizing hospital executives’ huge pay packages, whale-watching trips, and European travel extravaganzas. No, I am not joking.

A number of former Kettering Health executives and board members, along with their family members, received more than $3.2 million in improper “excess benefits” from the hospital from 2016 through 2022, according to hospital tax records recently obtained by the Dayton Daily News.

The updated tax filings say a forensic audit completed in 2023 found 46 people received “excess benefits” from the nonprofit hospital network. Recipients include former hospital executives, current and former senior leaders in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, prominent local business leaders and their families.

Former Kettering Health CEO Fred Manchur and his wife, Mary Kaye Manchur, topped the list, receiving nearly $1.5 million in benefits, according to tax filings.

Examples of such benefits include a $12,124 whale watching trip in Maui, a $21,250 spa retreat, thousands of dollars of decorations for the Manchurs’ private home, travel and lodging in Europe and Hawaii, and thousands of dollars in personal gifts, according to additional records obtained by the Dayton Daily News.

Nothing says keeping health care costs down like $12k dropped on hospital execs oohing and ahhhing over humpback whales flipping around in the tropics, does it?

A bunch of these benefits seem to have been filtering right through to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, too:

Ron Halvorsen Jr., former SDA Ohio Conference president, and his wife, Buffy Halvorsen, together received a total of $391,609 in economic benefits from the hospital, according to tax records.

Records obtained by the Dayton Daily News show Kettering Health spent thousands of dollars in domestic travel for Ron Halvorsen to “be with family” or “see his kids” in 2019, and a car rental and meals in Maui.

Current president of the SDA Ohio Conference Bob Cundiff received $62,654 and his wife, Tanique Cundiff, received $21,415 in economic benefits.

The Cundiffs attended a “Board Chair Retreat” in 2021 in Hawaii, which cost more than $6,000 in travel expenses and $1,300 in lodging for the couple, according to records obtained by this news outlet.

Current treasurer of the Columbia Union Conference, Emmanuel Asiedu, received $23,584 in economic benefits from Kettering Health. Asiedu declined to comment.

Kettering Health spent more than $5,000 in domestic travel in 2022 for Asiedu to attend a retreat, records show.

Andrea Jakobsons — current senior pastor of the SDA church in Kettering and listed as a “director” in tax filings — and several of her family members were listed as receiving benefits totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

Examples of transactions involving Andrea Jakobsons’ family include trips to Europe for a “growth retreat” and Hawaii for a “spiritual retreat,” according to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News.

Late last year, Kettering notably terminated its agreements with Medicare Advantage insurers Humana and Devoted Health, apparently because Kettering wasn’t happy about how much/how promptly it was being paid by the insurers.

Which, to be fair, is probably a big concern when you’re forking cash over, hand over fist to travel agents for Hawaiian “Board Chair Retreats” and other assorted goodies.

The Kettering example is the most egregious example of fiscal misbehavior by an Ohio hospital that we’ve heard of recently, though there are some other fun examples of fiscal indiscipline from other big names in Ohio health care.

Bon Secours Mercy Health (known as Mercy here) has long paid its CEO quite a bit– latest data shows that in 2024, the full figure was $12.8 million.

For the record, that’s more than slain United CEO Brian Thompson got paid in 2024.

They also dropped a cool $4 million on naming rights for a sports arena in Greenville, SC (if that strikes you as an Ohioan as not terribly useful to you here in the Buckeye State, you’re not alone).

This is the same system that had to pay local Cincinnati government back $7 million for reneging on a deal.

This is, of course, the same system that decided to throw Medicaid and Medicare Advantage patients out of network to try to extort more money from the insurer Anthem back in summer 2023– which maybe they sort of had to, to cover all these costs. They literally shot the puppy in this particular equation so they could do all of this crap even more.

OSU hospital system also got beaten up by our very own Buckeye Institute for dropping a cool $2 billion– yes, billion with a “B”– on a fancy new medical tower. If you think they weren’t going to pass that cost on to you, your boss, or the taxpayers via higher bills submitted to insurers, entitlements, or uninsured patients directly, I have a truly gigantic bridge to sell you. A couple of them, actually.

No one wants to talk about this stuff because, frankly, it’s less amusing and/or concerning than the senile Orange man threatening to take it to a gang of Lego-manufacturing Little Mermaid fans and their token 20,000 troops or whatever.

But if you want to know why your health insurance is getting more expensive, pay attention. As conservatives kept trying to remind everyone the whole way along during the original debate about passing Obamacare into law, it’s all well and good to expand insurance access, but it’s not going to address the fundamental problem in the health care system– high actual health care costs.

Here we are 15 years later, and just look.