Summary
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty criticized public outrage over the health insurance industry following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson.
In a leaked video to staff, Witty dismissed criticism as “misinformation” and urged employees not to engage with media.
Thompson’s murder outside a Manhattan hotel has intensified scrutiny of the industry’s practices, with bullet casings found at the scene bearing phrases linked to insurance claim denial tactics.
The killing has sparked debate on UnitedHealthcare’s history of denying claims, while the shooter remains at large.
Witty faces unrelated DOJ insider trading allegations.
100% this. If they know what’s best for us they should open a hospital.
Do the people making these refusals have medical degrees? Those people without medical degrees actually think they know better than a doctor?
“Necessary” is a really telling word there. Is it necessary that I have pain meds? No. It’s possible to go through my life in pain. It would fucking suck, but those pain meds aren’t strictly necessary. Just fuck anybody and any corporation who would want you to go through life in pain.
Same with teeth.
Sure, I can live without them but everything becomes harder and worse and there’s an awful period where you could probably die from the infections as many people used to.
But those are luxury bones covered by other, separate insurance, as though it is not related to my health.
100%. The majority of my health concerns at the moment are my teeth, and because dental is separate, I’m spending a lot more out of pocket because the maximum coverage is so much lower.
It’s also a fucking rip off. I supposedly have “good” insurance options and the premiums for a family of 3 are almost $1k a year, only cover up to $2k yearly of work, and requires 40 - 65% coinsurance depending on the type of work.
So if I spend less than $2k on dental work, I lose money buying dental. The max benefit I get is from $4k of dental, and any work beyond that just makes the situation even less attractive.
Every dental plan I’ve ever had (and they are considered good) was just my money pretax. No actual insurance. So, use it or lose it. I’ve already paid for it.
And eyes. If eyes aren’t necessary they should prove it by gouging out their own.
Dentist stuff being covered separately is more due to a historical division between MDs and dds that is unrelated to profit motive per se.
I mean those do exist, see Kaiser Permanente. Even they have a much lower denial rate than United.
I know! Kaiser is my favorite, but they have a very limited coverage area and a few years ago I moved outside of it.
Isn’t that a closed ecosystem though?
It is, though rarely they’ll reimburse you for out of network stuff as well. I got a COVID vaccine from rite aid and because Kaiser wasn’t fully stocking it at the time they reimbursed me.
They also only provide coverage in certain regions, so if you’re completely out of their regions and network they reimburse there too. They do this through a “travel card”.