Death of a CEO

By now, we're sure you've heard about the murder of the United Health Care CEO. It's all, over, the news. Now, we're definitely not one to chide a CEO ^{disputed}, but even we have something of a heart. Even if it shares the size of a loveable who-hating Christmas classic at 3 sizes too small, we do share a bit of empathy for all those involved in these trying times. We won't say who, but our "thoughts and prayers" go out to them.

HOWEVER

It should not go without note, how we ended up here. And for that, we'd like to take a little journey through the annals of time straight up to the point where they rectum.

First, let's start with a brief history of how health insurance works. This is largely for all our non-American friends who may not have had the pleasure of dealing with the American healthcare system and for our American friends who are too poor to understand the joys of health insurance. It goes like this. When mommy medical and papa greed love each other very much, they cuddle with each other really hard until they decide how they want to fleece the next poor sucker having one of the worst, but hopefully not last, days of their life. In case it wasn't clear, mommy medical is hospital administration and papa greed is free-range, grass-fed, good ol' American ingenuity.

Well these two got to scheming. It went a little something like this:

Mommy Medical (MM): "What's something everyone needs?"
Papa Greed (PG): "Morticians"
MM: "Well yeah but that field is already being scammed. We need something else."
PG: "Doctors? Like people will inevitably need to see a doctor because everyone get's sick at least once in their life right?"
MM: "Yeah... I think we could work with that."
PG: "I don't know how much we could make off someone going every once in a while though. Seems kind of sporadic."
MM: "No. You're missing the best part. They'll pay us out of fear."
PG: "Fear of us?"
MM: "No. Fear of having to pay a doctor for a disease they don't have yet but may have some day."
PG: "Why?"
MM: "Because they have no idea what it will cost. So they'll pay us and we'll pay the doctor?"
PG: "Won't that be expensive? How is that going to make us money."
MM: "We'll bill them exorbitant amounts of money every year to cover these incidents and then when they happen, we'll just say they're not covered."
PG: "BRILLIANT! But why would they pay us if we don't cover them."
MM: "Oh we'll cover some costs but not enough that we don't make mountains of money. And we'll change the rules of what we cover every year so nobody will ever know if somethings covered."

Well, nothing gets those too hot and bothered like the idea of ripping a honest persons money right out of their hands. Next thing you know, things get sticky. When those two bump uglies, you get a little bundle of joy called for-profit health insurance. Now you may be asking yourself, "why would I want someone trying to make money have a say in whether or not I get a life saving treatment" and BOY WOULD YOU BE RIGHT.

Anywho, those two met awhile ago and this little gremlin is now a full blown, pissed off teenager and like any massively growing demon in the flesh, needs to feed on ever growing piles of sustenance. I.e., money. But how does one go about getting tons of people to sign on to your money making scheme on the promise that you might cover an unforeseen medical expense. Well that's simple, you tie health insurance to their job. So now, not only are they terrified of not being able to pay their bills if they lose their job, they'll also be terrified that they'll lose their insurance and not being able to pay a doctor. CEOs across the globe rejoice. Now the insurance company can make money off the fear of paying doctors bills, while the hospital administrator can make money off of jacking up hospital bills and negotiating them down with favored insurance companies, and all the other CEOs at the coke party are snorting lines off employees afraid to leave because they need that sweet, sweet anxiety reducing health insurance plan.

Back to the Point

At this point, people are pissed. Paying upwards of $20,000 - 30,000 a year or more to carry health insurance for their families amongst a plethora of rules around who they're allowed to carry and which insurance plans they can use. And even after dumping a significant portion of their salary into this behemoth, they're continually met with insurance claim denials and obtuse bureaucratic bullshit. Things like, "you have to be pre-authorized for that procedure your doctor needs to perform on you RIGHT NOW". Or "we know we said it would be covered but it was billed under a different code which isn't covered". Down to the every popular, "that office/hospital/back-alley clinic is out of network and we only cover 0.001% of this visit."

Now back to this case specifically. We have United Health Care. Better known as the top denier of claims. A story in two charts.

These people are denying 1 out of every 3 claims they get from the very people fueling their massive profits. This is literally choosing money over people's lives. And things continue to get worse year after year.

If you want an actual, well thought out explanation of the situation, we recommend this video:

@drglaucomflecken

♬ original sound - Dr. Glaucomflecken

To put a pin on this rant, patients are pissed, nurses are pissed, doctors are pissed. Everyone spends countless hours trying to get insurance to cover the very thing they pay for when they actually need to use it only to be denied. If you're every feeling too happy and need a let-me-down, google "insurance denial stories" and be prepared to fully understand how someone takes up arms against an insurance CEO.