If Medicare-4-All existed, the United Healthcare CEO would be alive!
Wednesday morning, the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside the Hilton Midtown, where he was attending an investors conference that United Health Group, the parent company of United Healthcare, was scheduled to host on Wednesday at the hotel. I definitely don’t condone cold-blooded murder, but I understand why someone would want to commit such an act.
The title of this blog is very accurate; if America had a socialized healthcare model for all Americans, companies like United Healthcare would never have existed. Instead, these medical insurance companies have bought the government at local and federal levels to keep the system the same and continue to put profits over people’s health, systematically denying claims, prescription coverage, and huge deductibles.
How many people had to go into debt to pay out of pocket for essential healthcare. How many have died or had adverse health outcomes because they were denied treatment due to insurance companies denying coverage. Their policyholders pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars monthly for their health plan, only for insurance companies to deny claims, leaving customers with a substantial medical bill.
United Healthcare tops the denial rate charts with a whopping 32% denial rate, literally double the national average of 16%, which in itself is too damn high. My wife has Medicaid as she is disabled and has United Healthcare, and my health insurance company, Aetna, forced on me by my workplace, is worse than the national average, too, with a 20% denial rate, along with a deductible I will never meet!
This morning, Erin received a letter from United Healthcare denying her pain medication coverage. Of course, it was denied after careful consideration (sarcasm). Luckily, it’s relatively inexpensive when combined with a GoodRX prescription card. Other times, when picking up a 30-day supply prescription, the pharmacist says that insurance will only cover seven pills, and if it were not for GoodRX, that’d be hundreds of dollars out of our pockets, and unlike Brian, we don’t have deep pockets to dig into.
Another trick they use is ‘preauthorization,’ which delays patients getting their medication and often forces people to pay out of pocket, as they cannot wait for the sometimes weeks it takes for doctors to write to insurance companies to explain why the patient needs the medication, which will often lead to the aforementioned ‘after careful consideration’ denial letter, often for low-cost generic drugs. I guess doctors don’t know what a patient needs, and men in suits decide which medications we should have.
In addition, United Healthcare uses AI to decide which Medicare Advantage policyholders get covered and who doesn’t. For those who don’t know, Medicare is for Aged 65+ healthcare; how many grandmas and grandpas have died to line the pockets of people like Brian Thompson? United Healthcare has allegedly profited from this automated system since 2019 and has a crazy 90% error rate, according to a lawsuit.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare) is better than what we had before, but it was another handout to insurance companies after the public option was voted down in Congress. People were forced to get insurance or pay a tax penalty if they chose not to have insurance, although the individual mandate was eventually ruled unlawful during Trump’s first term. The cost has been ever-increasing. Before Erin was ruled disabled, she had an ACA plan, and we paid $240 monthly, with the government picking up over $1,300, that’s $1,500 monthly going to insurance companies.
For those reading outside of the US, you may well be asking, “Aren’t these companies regulated?” The simple answer is barely. In the US, money is speech, and corporations are people, so they can use their free speech to buy politicians and regulators. Those bureaucrats do their bidding in Congress, voting to weaken regulation. This is not partisan; both sides take bribes, so most votes will be a formality.
I wonder if Mr Thompson’s next of kin will get the bill for the treatment he received in an attempt to save him.
Too soon?
James, this one is tame compared to many of the comments on social media about this shooting. This is what happens when the system has failed and people are fed up with the bullshit. I’m sure his widow and children will be just fine, financially. Mr. Thompson’s reported annual compensation for being CEO was $10.2 million.