#Insurancy Industry

[delicatehologramballoon]

[victusinveritas]

In case you want to send a letter of support to the Claims Adjuster, here's his address according to Reddit. Note: as the text under general correspondence says, all stuff will be read before being passed on, so, don't be stupid, stupid.

[some-stars]

FUCK YES BDS WIN!!!!!! the link is to this article

[spitblaze]

I think. some people are so eager to fit everything that pisses them off into their political framework that they end up with very strange takes

[mylittleredgirl]

i also love a folk hero, but preemptively convicting this dude in the spirit of celebration still puts you on the side of the prosecution. you’re publicly agreeing with the nypd. you can see that, right? like for the love of god please cool it with the redpilled podcaster sounding conspiracy theories, but a simple “well i don’t know, it seems to me he could be just some guy” even if you’re winking while you type it is the exact ending to this we’re hoping for. reasonable doubt in the court of public opinion. jury nullification starts with you.

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

Wow shocking things might be getting out of control, how could anyone have seen this coming?

[thequeenofsastiel]

Lol it's a select few people on twitter too that are treating him like a trend like obviously there's nothing to update on right now. He is in custody in jail. There would be things to pick up on, debate over, discuss when the actual trial starts. But tbh I see him often still because the fires in LA brought up issues with insurance and then the previous year stats about insurance companies are coming out, he is mentioned everywhere.

Yeah it's ridiculous that the media is trying to pretend that he isn't still a big deal.

And like, again, I believe in innocent until proven guilty, but, innocent or guilty, he is currently the avatar of the rage of the average American.

Thanks for the ask!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 5, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 06, 2024

Yesterday a gunman assassinated the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, as he arrived at a meeting of investors in New York City. While authorities are still investigating, officials have released the information that the casings of the bullets that killed Thompson bore the words “deny,” “defend,” “depose,” all words associated with companies’ denial of health insurance, taken from the longer phrases “deny the claim,” “defend the lawsuit,” “depose the patient.”

While those clues could simply be a red herring, posters on social media have cheered what they seem to see as revenge against an abusive system in which people’s lives are at the mercy of executives who prioritize profits.

Health insurance companies have long been under scrutiny for their practices. For the past two years, ProPublica has run a long series exploring the different ways in which companies have developed systems to deny healthcare coverage to their policyholders.

UnitedHealthcare has been no exception either to such practices or to scrutiny. Its parent group UnitedHealth has a market valuation of $560 billion and was the eighth largest corporation in the world last year as measured by revenue. This year, UnitedHealthcare—Thompson’s unit��is expected to bring in $280 billion in revenue.

UnitedHealth is embroiled in a number of lawsuits. Andrew Stanton of Newsweek reported that on November 14, 2023, families of two now-deceased patients sued UnitedHealthcare over denial of coverage for Medicare Advantage patients for nursing home stays prescribed by their doctors. Medicare Advantage is the private insurance alternative to Medicare that receives a flat fee from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s an enormously profitable industry, and UnitedHealth controls almost a third of it.

The lawsuit alleges that UnitedHealthcare uses artificial intelligence to deny claims from Medicare Advantage policyholders. The lawsuit claims that the company knowingly uses an algorithm that makes errors 90% of the time because it also knows that only about 0.2% of policy holders will appeal the decision to deny their claims. Last month the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hammered UnitedHealth for dramatic increases in their denial rates for post-acute care between 2019 and 2022 as it switched to AI authorizations.

On the same day as the shooting, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance covering Connecticut, New York, and Missouri announced it would cover anesthesia during surgery or procedures only for a specific time period in order to make insurance more affordable by reducing overbilling.

After an outcry both from anesthesiologists and the public, the company today retracted its policy change, saying it had never intended to avoid “medically necessary anesthesia,” but meant simply to “clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines.” Their explanation might have calmed the news cycle, but its suggestion that the insurance officials rather than doctors should determine what anesthesia is appropriate for a patient during surgery echoed the argument in the UnitedHealthcare lawsuit.

Thompson’s murder seems to be a cultural moment in which popular fury over the power big business has over ordinary Americans’ lives exploded. Maureen Tkacik of The American Prospect noted, “Only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO.” The shooter, whose actual motive remains unknown, is fast becoming a folk hero.

Social media has exploded with users writing things like “[t]his claim for sympathy has been denied”; songs featuring the words “deny, “defend,” and “depose”; and recorded commentary condemning the healthcare insurance industry. UnitedHealth Group posted its sadness about Thompson’s death on Facebook yesterday about 1:00 p.m.; 36 hours later the post had 65,000 laughing emojis under it.

Security expert Charlie Carroll expressed surprise to Josh Fiallo of the Daily Beast that Thompson did not have a security detail. “We’re living in a world where people are extremely disgruntled,” Carroll said. “When people lose trust in the system, you start seeing more kidnappings and assassinations because they feel like they have to take matters into their own hands.”

In the wake of the shooting, UnitedHealthcare and several other insurance companies took down from their websites the names and photographs of their officials.

Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill today where they met with lawmakers to explain their vision for the Department of Government Efficiency, the group designed to cut the U.S. budget. Neither they nor the lawmakers shared much with the press, although Fox Business played a video of Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC) saying that that “nothing is sacrosanct,” and that “they're going to put everything on the table,” including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI) told Just The News that cuts to the budget “don’t have to be just the discretionary spending. We can get at some of the mandatory spending also…food stamps, some of those things.” He continued: “There may be more bang for the buck in terms of growing our economy…making regulatory changes, get the impediments out of the way, let those job creators and entrepreneurs really be able to go to work.”

In view of today’s news about healthcare, it’s probably worth remembering that Musk has called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that Project 2025 has called for making Medicare Advantage—the privatized Medicare in which UnitedHealth specializes—the default enrollment option for Medicare. This would essentially privatize Medicare for the 66 million people who use it, but since Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers about 6% more than Medicare, this would not create the savings Musk is supposed to be finding.

Andrew Perez of RollingStone reported today that election financial disclosures filed yesterday revealed that Elon Musk was the secret funder of the “RBG PAC,” a Super PAC created just before the election that claimed Trump had the same position on abortion as the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Although Trump has bragged about overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion and the 2024 Republican platform supported the far-right idea of “fetal personhood”—which would apply all the rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment from the moment a human egg is fertilized—the RBG PAC ran ads promising that Trump would not support a national abortion ban.

Ginsburg’s granddaughter called the comparison of Trump and her grandmother “nothing short of appalling.”

The super PAC was created so late that it avoided disclosure before November 5. It was funded entirely by Musk with an injection of $20.5 million.

Bridget Bowman, Ben Kamisar, and Scott Bland of NBC News reported tonight that Musk spent at least $250 million to get Trump elected. In addition to the $20.5 million to the RBG PAC, he put $238 million into the America PAC. Musk also supported Trump through free advertising and commentary on his social media platform X.

Today provided a snapshot of American society that echoed a similar moment on January 6, 1872, when Edward D. Stokes shot railroad baron James Fisk Jr. as he descended the staircase of New York’s Grand Central Hotel. The quarrel was over Fisk’s mistress, Josie, who had taken up with the handsome Stokes, but the murder instantly provoked a popular condemnation of the ties between big business and government.

Fisk was a rich, flamboyant, and unscrupulous man-about-town, who was deeply entwined both with railroad barons like Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, and Cornelius Vanderbilt and with New York’s Tammany Hall political machine and its infamous leader, William Marcy Tweed. Tweed made sure the laws benefited the railroads and, the papers noted, snuck into the hotel to say goodbye to his friend in the hours it took for him to perish.

After the Civil War, most Americans applauded the nation’s businessmen for the support their growing industries had provided to the Union, but by 1872 the enormous fortunes the railroad men had amassed had tarnished their reputation. At the same time, big operators were starting to squeeze smaller enterprises out of business in order to control the markets, and popular anger simmered over their increasing control of the economy.

Stokes’s shooting was the event that sparked a popular rebellion. Newspapers covered every minute of the event and Fisk’s demise, while sensational books about the murder rolled off the presses.

Together, they redefined late nineteenth-century industrialists, with one painting Fisk as a representative businessman who with just “an hour’s effort,” could “gather into his clutches a score of millions of other people’s property, impoverish a thousand wealthy men, or derange the values and the traffic of a vast empire.”

Both those covering the murder and those reading about it rejoiced in Fisk’s misfortune.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[isaacsapphire]

Perp walk for Mangione was a show of force in support of the rule of law. Everyone knows murder for profit is wrong. Apparently it’s a matter of public debate whether it’s ok to murder an individual deemed symbolically responsible for a systemic problem which he did not personally cause and could not have personally solved.

Rule of law? I understand what you’re saying, but rule of law includes presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial, which both were impinged upon by that perp walk.

Luigi has plead not guilty, and for all I know all the evidence was planted and he’s just a slightly loopy guy who would fit in here and was on an American walkabout when the cops decided to frame him because they needed a perp in custody asap.

And yes, the overall public reaction to the killing has been somewhere between joy and the arguably mild approval of the “we aren’t going to try to help solve this one” from various investigative subreddits, to people arguing about the true cause of the health care crisis in the United States.

The aggression of the response to both Luigi and Boston really doesn’t feel like equality under the law, because the same offenses are treated differently when the victims are regular people.

[phoenixyfriend]

Watching a youtube video and some well-intentioned Brits are saying "I know the US has an entirely privatized healthcare system, but what do people do if there's an emergency? Like for dental work? Obviously there should be a--" No, honey. There isn't. If you can't afford dental, you just don't get dental work done. The closest is like… ACA/Medicaid insurance and that's it.

"I'm very much hoping that they don't just turn people away" they do

They did find "it looks like people can get help but they're landed with a big bill that has massive debt or tax implications"

Which like. Yeah. Medical debt is a fact of life in the US.

They are aware of their privilege, but even trying to account for it they need the internet's help to realize it's just. Debt or Death.

[chrliekclly]

How did you get your job on sunny? I really wanna go into the entertainment industry.

iv told th story b4 but i got onto th show bcuz i just happened to b n th right place @ th right time

was working on smthn completely different nd drunk on th camera truck during one of our wrap days me, the DIT, nd the loader wer talking abt fave tv shows nd when i said tht always sunny was mine th loaders just like "oh lol funny im the 1st AC on that. i can get u some days if u want" ???

so i...did some days...then i did a season...and now im core crew i guess

[hot-wire-this-old-car]

so i don’t know anything about this italian american guy but everyone is gonna home for the holidays and talk to their families about replacing culture war with class war right

[louisinart]

PSA for folks who just got a cat/dog or are considering getting a cat/dog from former vet receptionist:

As early as you can, sit down and ask yourself the question: am i willing to let this critter get very ill and/or die without medical intervention? Am i willing to watch them decline (or choose euthanasia) and not take any steps to prolong their life? I know it sounds harsh, but I've met people who both love their pets and don't see the point in putting a dog through chemotherapy. Personally, I don't see the point in casting judgement on those people -- including if you discover that you're one of them. If this is you (and you're really, really sure about it), you're all set.

If instead you end up deciding that the life and wellness of your pet is worth fighting for, sign up for pet insurance. Do it right now. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and (if you can) avoid the vet until you have. Many pet insurance companies refuse to insure animals with a preexisting condition, which means anything that the vet finds could damage your ability to get covered. Even if they were examined at the shelter, there's a chance the shelter vet missed something that your neighborhood vet won't. Don't take that risk! It's better to have insurance when you don't need it than not be able to get it when you do.

And I can hear you asking: what's so important about having pet insurance anyway? And the answer is something every pet owner will eventualy learn: Vet bills are medical bills. At the vet i worked at, check-in appointments were $75, meds could run you anywhere from $30-100 a bottle, and most non-routine surgeries (which are the majority of surgeries) cost thousands. I once watched a family rack up $16,000 to bring their dog back from liver failure. In my personal life I've met people who are saddled with thousands in medical debt for a pet that didn't end up making it. Vet bills are medical bills and, like medical bills, they can ruin your life if you're not ready for them.

At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet you are also committing to care for them when they're old and sick. It's not a question of whether you'll need to get medical care for your pet but when, and its Very Easy to only realize you need pet insurance when it's already too late.

Short of hoping they go missing when they're still young, in my experience you have three options: get pet insurance, commit to not treating medical issues, or take on thousands of dollars worth of costs. How you navigate that choice is up to you, but I would strongly advise avoiding option 3.

[cheezewhis]

Glad everyone's giving insurance companies shit right now. It's well deserved. But I have to say I'm not exonerating the medical industry either. I openly don't trust doctors and it's not because I don't trust the science. It's because I can't trust someone who swears to do no harm and then in the same breath charges someone thousands of dollars to live. I know it's not the fault of doctor's and that the medical industry is an industry that aims to make money like any other, but just the fact that we need to pay companies to pay for our medical care because it's so fucking expensive should be a gigantic red flag to anyone. It's almost like healthcare should be a universal basic right because you shouldn't have to pay to not die.

[hezigler]

Comedian Says What NO ONE Else Will About Healthcare CEO Shooting

Comedian Josh Johnson, who's also a Daily Show correspondent.