Lawmaker offers rhetorical pay raise to HCFA chief

Rep. Fortney Stark, D-Calif., fired off a letter late last week encouraging Health Care Financing Administration chief Nancy-Ann DeParle to request an eight-fold pay raise.

"You should immediately ask-heck, demand-a $866,700 pay increase," Stark urged in a tongue-in-cheek missive he made public Tuesday.

Stark opposes legislation sponsored by Sens. John Breaux, D-La., and Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that would replace the head of HCFA, which runs the Medicare program, with a seven-member board, each paid nearly $20,000 more than DeParle's current salary.

"You are doing the job of seven people! And under the Breaux-Thomas premium support bill, Congress would replace your $122,400 salary with $989,100," Stark wrote."In other words, if we increased your pay $866,699, we'd still be a buck ahead."

Stark wrote that the Breaux-Frist bill-a product of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare led by Breaux and Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif.-would use higher premiums on Medicare beneficiaries to "force seniors into managed care plans," creating "the largest HMO in the country."