Hacker News Reader

Comment by gobip | Hacker News Reader

I'm non american too. They make this news look sad, while him and their companies let thousands of people dying at the hospital because they don't have the means to pay for their surgeries.

They have blood on their hands and americans can't have empathy for these people having the power to let someone live or not.

View on HN

I'd say it's worse than this. The Americans UHC (and CEO) harmed were all paying customers who were denied coverage for claims. Apparently (quick Google search), UHC denies ~30% of claims, while the industry average is 16% [0]. Their net income has also doubled from $11b in 2018 to $22b in 2024 [1].

[0] https://www.valuepenguin.com/health-insurance-claim-denials-...

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/UNH/unitedhealth-g...

Even 16% seems too high.

And just to be clear for those not living in the USA, the people being denied coverage by UHC are the same people paying health insurance premiums to UHC in order to have health insurance coverage.

Even for folks who can pay for medical care... UnitedHealthcare is notorious for denying claims from their policyholders.

An example that was posted on Reddit recently from a physician:

"UHC denied my patient's prescription for a Lovenox bridge so her Coumadin could be held prior to surgery. The reason? I prescribed it twice daily instead of once daily, which is the standard of care for a Lovenox bridge. I was so pissed off I just paid for the medication out of pocket myself and gave it to my patient.

It was $12. Twelve. Fucking. Dollars. They were totally okay with the possibility of her suffering a stroke or major thromboembolic event to save TWELVE DOLLARS."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1h6h0wp/comment/m0ew8...

Man, assassin may have been a bona-fide American hero.

Do they denied their surgery or did they get it but bankrupt after?

often, surgeries are denied if you can't pay. plenty pay insurance premiums diligently but then are routinely denied coverage. there was a story the other day about an insurance provider not continuing anesthesia in surgeries if they (the surgery) takes too long and the patient didn't pay up. healthcare is the #1 problem in the US right now and our legislators are only making it worse due to accepting bribes (i.e. lobbying monies) to keep the status quo or worse, enrich the corporations in our for-profit healthcare system.

You can see the down-to-the-minute processes work in United in a specific case of ulcerative colitis (which has no cure):

https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-i...

It particularly interesting that high cost treatments seem to have motivated United to hire a college campus administrator as a secret budget specialist since the cost of a lifetime of treatment seemed high for younger people.

My god. I have Crohn's disease and am on remicade. I've had it refused by aetna and must try two "biosimilars" before being allowed to take the medicine I've been on for over a decade. They asked me if I'd tried them before because "some people do not tolerate them". So now I'm faced with potentially up to a year of decline and ruining health just to take the drug I've been on for a decade, _that the manufacturer pays for anyways_.

I had a 95% deviation to my septum. I spent years basically mouth breathing, because it was so occluded.

Finally went to an amazing ENT (where I got that number, and saw how bad it was on imaging). "Great, so when can we schedule surgery?"

He sighs. "First, I need to prescribe you these two nasal sprays so you can take them three times a day for four weeks and come back to me and tell me that surprise, surprise, they haven't realigned the cartilage in your nose. That way insurance won't deny the authorization of surgery."

is that why the allergist prescribed that nasal spray... i had to wait 6 more months for the nasal surgery that turned my life around. son of a bitch....

"Almost certainly", I'd say from my experience as a patient, as someone who worked in healthcare, and someone who worked for a company that wrote claims benefit management software for the industry.

> there was a story the other day about an insurance provider not continuing anesthesia in surgeries if they (the surgery) takes too long and the patient didn't pay up.

Thankfully, they've walked back that policy (for some unknown reason).

The system works! /s

Surgeons aren't going to do surgery if they aren't paid for it.

Yeah they will. Surgeons aren’t in it for the money, they’re in it for the glory.

Most doctors, nurses, EMTs, etc. would work for free if they could magically have them and their families taken care of, as evidenced by how much they go well above and beyond the requirements of their job, working heroic hours, buying stuff out of pocket when the system fails them, etc.

Not all health care professionals, but 90% of the ones I’ve met.

EMTs are usually in it because they're adrenaline junkie masochists. I am married to one, there are few exceptions.

Nurses are often there "for the money" but absolutely love their jobs.

Surgeons are absolutely in it for the glory, they have the same basic makeup as EMTs.

Different specialties have different personalities, for sure. Just look at Orthopedic bro...

What about the surgical nurses and med techs? What about paying for the surgical room? The after surgery care? And a lot of surgeons are in it for the money.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com