A union-led initiative in Arizona will likely add a measure to the November ballot asking voters to cap hospital executives' pay at that of the U.S. president, according to Tuscon.com.
The Arizona Secretary of State's Office Thursday received petitions containing 281,087 signatures calling for a ballot measure to cap the total compensation for any hospital executive, manager or administrator at the take-home pay of the President of the United States: $450,000 per year.
The minimum number of signatures required to add a measure to the November ballot is 150,642, according to the report.
If the measure is passed, hospitals that do not comply with the cap could lose their state licenses and be subject to prosecution under state consumer fraud laws.
The proposal drew immediate backlash from the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, which said a cap on executive pay would "harm healthcare and hurt patients," according to the report.
"If we're going to have outside interests setting arbitrary caps on what hospital leaders and executives can be paid, it's going to hamper the ability of these hospitals to recruit the best people," said AHHA spokesperson Matthew Benson on the link between executive compensation and the level of care institutions can provide.
In response, a spokesperson for the Services Employees International Union, which created the measure, said, "I don't think patients die because an executive doesn't move paper across their desk enough. [Clinicians] are the people who save lives."
But the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is leaning against the measure, saying it "would collapse Arizona's healthcare industry and dramatically harm other sectors of our economy," according to the report.
A similar ballot measure was proposed but later withdrawn in California. Read about it here.