this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
389 points (97.1% liked)

News

23661 readers
3672 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] yarr@feddit.nl 54 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is so much bullshit:

Witty added that Thompson was "never content with the status quo" and praised the CEO for advocating for ideas that "were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human."

Yeah, fucking sure. Here's what happened under his watch:

  • Emergency Room Visit Denials: In 2021, the company planned to deny insurance payments for non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms, a move criticized by the American Hospital Association for potentially deterring patients from seeking necessary emergency care.
  • Automated Claim Denials: The company began utilizing artificial intelligence to automate claim denials, raising concerns about the fairness and accuracy of such automated processes in evaluating individual patient claims.
  • Insider Trading Allegations: Thompson faced allegations of insider trading, with reports indicating he sold a significant portion of his shares shortly before a Department of Justice antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group became public, leading to a drop in the company's stock price.

This is just lip service by the new boss. They could drop their rates, have more transparent claims process or any one of a hundred moves that THEY could initiate and would not require new legislation. Guess what, since that gets in the way of profit, they won't bother. People are already getting bored of this news cycle. In another week everyone will be talking about something else and UHC will still be raking in profits taken from the wallets of cancer patients.

Actions speak louder than words and I don't see any actions here!

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, the profit motive makes it literally impossible to improve. Human nature is trash. The only hope we have is to form institutions. But in the United States anyhow, that's not in style. What is in style? "Fuck you, I got mine"

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How is it human nature when it's literally the system that is the problem? This is not about individuals, but about systems, specifically the profit motive

Competition for the most profit under capitalism is literally the driving factor for all of this. If you don't do it, someone else will take your place and do it instead

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're missing the point entirely. Which was that the current system is just letting the worst of human nature run wild

[–] Reyali@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

(Not who responded to you, but) I agree with you when you put it as “the worst of human nature.” I take issue with the idea that all of human nature is trash.

The systems we live in absolutely bring out the worst in people because it drives desperation. Desperate people will do what they must no matter how they hurt people, and the whole “hurt people hurt people” then runs rampant.

But human nature also contains the helpers, community, love, and so much more. We need systems that encourage those things, not to write off all our problems as just how we are.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah I am with you actually. I should've written "can be trash" really. there's a lot of good in people but the worst people tend to seize power unfortunately. Hence the shitty systems that make even good people into worse people

[–] TheKingBombOmbKiller@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Emergency Room Visit Denials

Wait, do American hospitals charge people for visiting patients in the ER? Or is this about reimbursements for transport and parking?

[–] pixelscript@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Assuming you're not being sarcastic, "visit" in this context is talking about the patient themselves going to and using the ER, not a bystander visiting a patient who is already there.

[–] TheKingBombOmbKiller@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah, that makes more sense. I misread. With all of the horror stories I hear about American health care, it seemed farfetched, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

[–] pixelscript@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

You've probably given them a new revenue stream idea.

[–] keckbug@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They do, often at elevated rates. A simple visit and x-ray, perhaps to check on an ankle after a serious mis-step, can easily hit several thousand dollars in charges beyond any transport costs.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

So according to their plan, patients are expected to know whether their chest pain is actually a heart attack before they go to the ER, and if they guess wrong, they're bankrupt?