• Skiluros@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    154
    ·
    7 days ago

    The insurance industry has pushed back against the outrage. “The people in our industry are mission-driven professionals working to make coverage and care as affordable as possible and to help people navigate the complex medical system,” said Michael Tuffin, the president of AHIP, a major trade group, on LinkedIn.

    I am curious if Tuffin would support a single-payer system to make the US medical system less complex. Perhaps the savings from all that wasteful insurance company spend could be used to help bring down the cost of providing medicine.

    • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      79
      ·
      7 days ago

      “The people in our industry are mission-driven professionals working to make coverage and care as affordable as possible"

      That $358 Billion profit they’ve registered in 2023 says a lot about how much all those “efficiency” savings are being passed to their customers.

      • ultranaut@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        52
        ·
        7 days ago

        I think that’s the revenue number and profit was around $20 billion. Which is still an incomprehensible amount of money that could have been spent on actual healthcare instead of extracted from their victims.

        • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          20 thousand million dollars is an incomprehensible number. Let alone to profit for healthcare.

          A functional government would have regulated the entire industry into something reasonable and sustainable decades ago.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        7 days ago

        Not to mention the profit is on top of the costs of negotiating and processing the complex shit system that they lobbied for.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      7 days ago

      “Mission driven people” is like “family-owned company”: you can apply that to nearly anything.

      The mission being to screw over people enough to increase profits more next quarter.

      • Plastic_Ramses@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        7 days ago

        Mike–the online vitriol is horrific. Every single person I know who has worked in this industry has done so because they see it as a way to help people at their most vulnerable moments. At my company, we receive thousands of member calls each month. Every single response to every single one of those calls from someone in need of help is an act of service. How awful for Brian’s friends, family, and colleagues to have to read such ignorant hate.

        Just wow, well i hope brians parents are absolutely ashamed of themselves for raising a terrible human being as a son.

        Brian deserved everything he got and much more. If there actually is a hell i hope hes there for eternity.

        • Skiluros@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          5 days ago

          I often wonder how genuine such polemics are.

          From my professional experience working with US companies, such attitudes are more of a cover. “It’s technically not illegal, so my actions are just and fair irrespective of the real world impact.” There is a fair share of “true believer” types (not at the senior level though), but they are a lot rarer than the amount of public facing polemical copytext would suggest.

          This is not a critique per se, more of an observation. I enjoy working with Americans, they are pretty laid back and can be relatively generous with comp if you know what you are doing (and you know how to sell yourself).

      • Klanky@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        7 days ago

        Thanks. Just reported his post as ‘fraud or scam’ lol. I know nothing will happen but it made me laugh.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      When I become dictator of the united states I will retroactively make lying on this scale illegal and punishable by an eternal sentence in The Pit

    • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      7 days ago

      If you’re on the jury you can deny the evidence right in front of you. UnitedHealth does it every day.

      • glimse@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        7 days ago

        Oh their LAWYERS are saying it was first degree murder?

        Well I’ve got someone here with an associates degree who denies that claim.

  • fuzzywombat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    7 days ago

    I can imagine a headline “Republicans swiftly call for gun control measures after a senseless shooting of UnitedHealthCare CEO.”