You’re my favorite. I didn’t get the movie reference, so please enlighten me. My 30 year old son wants AOC to run for President in 28. He said he’d travel the country to campaign for her (we live in blue Oregon). That generation is feeling the class war and as inheritors of climate change, they know it’s burning down anyways, so they have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain.
I refer to UnitedHealthcare's leadership issues in a recent piece on Substack. Beyond what I wrote there, which focused primarily on Medicare, note that the year-to-year trend has been for people to move from "Original Medicare" to "Medicare Advantage" (a private-sector alternative to Medicare), which I find counter-intuitive but which might hint at the effectiveness of non-stop corporate advertising. It was in part due to stockholder disappointment with new revenues from UnitedHealthcare's Medicare Advantage offering that Thompson's predecessor was forced to resign. You can read my commentary, "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way - US Healthcare" here: https://leavingamerica.substack.com/p/it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way-healthcare?r=1u1uw5
I am absolutely sickened by the large leftist contingent that thinks that cold blooded murder of a corporate executive on the streets of Manhattan is in ANY way justified. What country am I living in. And yet you want Daniel Penny CONVICTED for stopping a man who was a past, present, and future violent danger to his fellow citizens. Anarchy in the USA Indeed.
Let’s be clear. The Healthcare Industry, soup to nuts, will never ever operate outside of the private sector in this country. Huge numbers of Americans ARE covered or subsidized by the government. stop pointing to small homogeneous countries as examples where it works. The US is not Denmark. Anyone in UK or Canada that wants expedient non-lifesaving treatment will wait weeks if not months.
How is it that most drugs and advances in med tech come from a private sector (US, Japan, several Euros)?
You keep boiling us frogs, we'll eventually tip over the pot.
Also of note, the manhunt for the suspect. If you're rich and white the NYPD will drop everything to get your murder solved. What a ridiculous display.
I used to care about upholding norms, decency, that kind of stuff. Now I'm in the MEH category.
I spent nearly 30 years of my life prosecuting murderers. Whoever shot Thompson should be punished to the fullest extent of New York law. BUT I also remember 10 years ago that United Health paid a claim of my partner and 2 months later denied an identical claim based on the same medical condition that had occurred 6 weeks after the first. If I had had any ketchup at hand, I’d still be scrubbing ketchup stains off the walls. It only took United Health 6 months to realize they had bungled. Thomason’s killer should be prosecuted, but if there’s an extreme emotional distress defense available, the defense should pursue it.
And how did Anthem BCBS generate its table of allotted time to be zonked out in surgery? Why even create the metric in the first place? Did they think they were paying too much for sleepy-sleepy shots? Or are they trying to shaft the anesthesiologists? If I had to guess, I’d guess Anthem is trying to cut the docs down to what Anthem views is a more manageable size.
An update on the evening of 5 Dec about Anthem and the planned change to its anesthesia reimbursement policy. From the Anthem website for providers (that is, doctors, hospitals, etc.):
"The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines. Any medically necessary anesthesia would have been paid under the update....
"Based on feedback received and misinterpretation of our policy change, it is evident that our communication regarding this policy was not clear, and as a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change."
At least there's less of a chance you'll wake up while your gall bladder is being removed because the anesthesiologist is working on the clock.
Corporate Greed is hazardous to your health: Follow the money!
How do health insurance CEOs make millions while rejecting more claims from patients? How do health insurance firms that reject the most claims also tend to pay their CEOs the most? Spend the most on lobbying for more healthcare cutbacks and tax cuts for the wealthy?
According to a Stat article, UNH made $300 billion in revenue this year and Thompson himself made $9.1 million in salary, bonus, and gains of his stock in 2023.
"And Thompson didn’t become CEO until 2021. So the 2010 industry wasn’t his fault."
Just to clarify:
NYT states - "Brian Thompson spent more than 20 years climbing through the ranks at UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest health insurers and a main division of the conglomerate UnitedHealth Group."
https://www.democratandchronicle.com states - "Thompson was named CEO in April 2021, having joined the company in 2004. According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously served as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, before signing on with United as Director of Corporate Development."
He wasn't just a victim of the "system" nor was he just following orders in a system his humanity would normally not take part in.
You mentioned being a fan of Cory Doctorow in the past and the main story today reminds me of the novella Radicalized from the collection of the same name.
To express how much of a Newsfucker I am, my first reaction after feeling shocked was to check to see if my 4 shares of UNH tanked. They stayed the course.
I am an old lady who believes that premeditated murder under any circumstances is not justifiable or should be greeted with glee. We are better than that. At least I thought we were.
I certainly agree. But I also find it challenging to judge the reactions of people who’ve been traumatized by the insurance industry. Trying to have empathy for everyone!
We are better than that, at least most of us are. I saw no glee in the post and I am really wanting to read more about where this story goes and who *REALLY* was behind it and why.
You’re my favorite. I didn’t get the movie reference, so please enlighten me. My 30 year old son wants AOC to run for President in 28. He said he’d travel the country to campaign for her (we live in blue Oregon). That generation is feeling the class war and as inheritors of climate change, they know it’s burning down anyways, so they have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain.
I refer to UnitedHealthcare's leadership issues in a recent piece on Substack. Beyond what I wrote there, which focused primarily on Medicare, note that the year-to-year trend has been for people to move from "Original Medicare" to "Medicare Advantage" (a private-sector alternative to Medicare), which I find counter-intuitive but which might hint at the effectiveness of non-stop corporate advertising. It was in part due to stockholder disappointment with new revenues from UnitedHealthcare's Medicare Advantage offering that Thompson's predecessor was forced to resign. You can read my commentary, "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way - US Healthcare" here: https://leavingamerica.substack.com/p/it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way-healthcare?r=1u1uw5
This is brilliant! I just stumbled upon you today. I’ve been laughing for 15 minutes ❤️
I am absolutely sickened by the large leftist contingent that thinks that cold blooded murder of a corporate executive on the streets of Manhattan is in ANY way justified. What country am I living in. And yet you want Daniel Penny CONVICTED for stopping a man who was a past, present, and future violent danger to his fellow citizens. Anarchy in the USA Indeed.
Let’s be clear. The Healthcare Industry, soup to nuts, will never ever operate outside of the private sector in this country. Huge numbers of Americans ARE covered or subsidized by the government. stop pointing to small homogeneous countries as examples where it works. The US is not Denmark. Anyone in UK or Canada that wants expedient non-lifesaving treatment will wait weeks if not months.
How is it that most drugs and advances in med tech come from a private sector (US, Japan, several Euros)?
Most "drugs and advances" are heavily subsidized by tax dollars. Sorry.
Humanitarians don’t execute other humans.
Yep, it's usually those awful, awful leftists... the social democrats... the humanitarians...
Sen. John Cornyn R. says Kash Patel has “vast experience” and will be confirmed for FBI Director.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/12/05/congress/kash-patel-fbi-cornyn-00192805
You keep boiling us frogs, we'll eventually tip over the pot.
Also of note, the manhunt for the suspect. If you're rich and white the NYPD will drop everything to get your murder solved. What a ridiculous display.
I used to care about upholding norms, decency, that kind of stuff. Now I'm in the MEH category.
I spent nearly 30 years of my life prosecuting murderers. Whoever shot Thompson should be punished to the fullest extent of New York law. BUT I also remember 10 years ago that United Health paid a claim of my partner and 2 months later denied an identical claim based on the same medical condition that had occurred 6 weeks after the first. If I had had any ketchup at hand, I’d still be scrubbing ketchup stains off the walls. It only took United Health 6 months to realize they had bungled. Thomason’s killer should be prosecuted, but if there’s an extreme emotional distress defense available, the defense should pursue it.
And how did Anthem BCBS generate its table of allotted time to be zonked out in surgery? Why even create the metric in the first place? Did they think they were paying too much for sleepy-sleepy shots? Or are they trying to shaft the anesthesiologists? If I had to guess, I’d guess Anthem is trying to cut the docs down to what Anthem views is a more manageable size.
An update on the evening of 5 Dec about Anthem and the planned change to its anesthesia reimbursement policy. From the Anthem website for providers (that is, doctors, hospitals, etc.):
"The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines. Any medically necessary anesthesia would have been paid under the update....
"Based on feedback received and misinterpretation of our policy change, it is evident that our communication regarding this policy was not clear, and as a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change."
At least there's less of a chance you'll wake up while your gall bladder is being removed because the anesthesiologist is working on the clock.
Corporate Greed is hazardous to your health: Follow the money!
How do health insurance CEOs make millions while rejecting more claims from patients? How do health insurance firms that reject the most claims also tend to pay their CEOs the most? Spend the most on lobbying for more healthcare cutbacks and tax cuts for the wealthy?
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/12/05/corporate-greed-is-hazardous-to-your-health-follow-the-money/
Nota bene: Big Oil is cars, which is our actual problem.
According to a Stat article, UNH made $300 billion in revenue this year and Thompson himself made $9.1 million in salary, bonus, and gains of his stock in 2023.
Thanks, Brian!
The Fucking News, day in and day out does some of the very best journalism in the country. This column is simply remarkable for its breadth and depth.
If you haven’t seen DAMAGED CARE with Laura Dern, I highly recommend it. Based on a true story, real MD turned activist. Old but still relevant.
Laura Dern is an exceptional actor. I haven't seen that film yet, but I certainly will. Thank you for the recommendation.
"And Thompson didn’t become CEO until 2021. So the 2010 industry wasn’t his fault."
Just to clarify:
NYT states - "Brian Thompson spent more than 20 years climbing through the ranks at UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest health insurers and a main division of the conglomerate UnitedHealth Group."
https://www.democratandchronicle.com states - "Thompson was named CEO in April 2021, having joined the company in 2004. According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously served as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, before signing on with United as Director of Corporate Development."
He wasn't just a victim of the "system" nor was he just following orders in a system his humanity would normally not take part in.
Yeppers - he has long been a beneficiary of the evil done by UHC.
You mentioned being a fan of Cory Doctorow in the past and the main story today reminds me of the novella Radicalized from the collection of the same name.
I’ll put it on my list!
To express how much of a Newsfucker I am, my first reaction after feeling shocked was to check to see if my 4 shares of UNH tanked. They stayed the course.
Wild. Full speed ahead.
I am an old lady who believes that premeditated murder under any circumstances is not justifiable or should be greeted with glee. We are better than that. At least I thought we were.
I certainly agree. But I also find it challenging to judge the reactions of people who’ve been traumatized by the insurance industry. Trying to have empathy for everyone!
We are better than that, at least most of us are. I saw no glee in the post and I am really wanting to read more about where this story goes and who *REALLY* was behind it and why.