Gov. Dannel Malloy is on the offensive over CEO compensation at the state's hospitals, as criticism of his Medicaid cuts mounts.
Malloy spoke to reporters after a State Bond Commission meeting in Hartford on Tuesday. He was questioned about recent cuts he made of more than $63 million to state Medicaid reimbursement.
"When somebody points out that a not-for-profit organization is paying their chief executive $3 million and -- by the way -- growing in essence their profits, and then pointing their finger at the state and say -- by the way, you should give us hundreds of millions of dollars more -- I don’t think there is anything such as a red herring," Malloy said.
The CEOs of Yale-New Haven Hospital and Saint Francis Hospital received more than $3 million in compensation last year.
But Jennifer Jackson, President and CEO of the Connecticut Hospital Association, defended executive pay during a press conference last week.
"We need to be able to attract and retain the most capable and the brightest executives to run institutions that are literally a matter of life and death 24 hours a day, every day of the year," Jackson said.
Jackson also said the discussion surrounding executive pay is not important in this current situation.
Watch the meeting and the press briefing below via CT-N:
