For years, patients in the U.S. health care system have complained that: bureaucracy they don't understand.
Physicians may be in the insurance company's network one year and not the next. It's almost impossible to get someone to help you over the phone. Coverage for treatments and prescriptions is often rudely denied.
this week's deadly gunfire of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson A wave of national emotion — resentment, anger, resentment, helplessness — has been triggered by Americans sharing their personal interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless behemoths. Ta.
In particular, the words written on the ammunition The words “delay,” “denial,” and “disposal” found at the shooting scene reflect phrases used by insurance companies to describe how to avoid paying claims, and have long been criticized by the industry. voice was amplified.
How Tim Anderson had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before his wife Mary died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2022 “Suddenly, I felt energetic again,'' he said while explaining the situation.
Anderson said he was unable to interview the machine that helps his wife breathe and talk. Toward the end, the wife communicated by blinking when her husband showed her a photo. The family had to rely on donations from local ALS organizations.
“The business model of insurance is to not pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio.
“Mary told me to keep fighting this issue when she was still able to speak,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.”
For Anderson and others, Thompson's death and the message left at the scene provided an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Police efforts focused conversations around dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and social media on the topic. to find the gunman Let's keep this incident on the news.
Hans Maristera said he understood why there was so much chatter. A 54-year-old caregiver in California was moved to comment on Facebook about UnitedHealthcare's reputation for denying insurance coverage. As a Catholic, he said he is saddened by Thompson's death and thinks of his family, especially now that the holidays are approaching.
But his customers also have complaints about their insurance companies, mostly wealthy seniors who are not protected from high co-pays.
“And you know CEO of this company “If you're paying a lot of money to get $10 million a year, you don't have a lot of sympathy for this guy,” Maristela said, citing Thompson's compensation package, which includes a base salary and stock options. “We understand that healthcare is a business, but the obsession with stock prices and profits needs to be reevaluated.”
Michael Anne Kyle, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said he's not surprised by the increased conversation around insurance companies.
“People often struggle with this problem alone, and seeing someone else talking about it might make you want to join the conversation,” she said.
Kyle said she studies how patients access care and has seen complaints over the years about how the system is structured. Costs are rising, and insurance companies are increasing controls such as prior authorizations and physician networks to control costs. Patients often find themselves in the middle of disputes between doctors and insurance companies.
“Patients already spend a lot of money on health care, but they still face problems with services,” she says.
Insurers are well aware that most of the money coming in goes back out to pay claims, trying to lock in rising costs and overuse of some care.
In Ohio, Mr. Anderson said his first reaction to the CEO shooting was to suspect it had something to do with the kind of press denial he experienced against his wife.
“I never condone killing people,” he said. “But I read that and thought, 'I wonder if anyone has a spouse who has been denied coverage?'”
Will Flannery, a Portland-based eye doctor and comedian with a large following on social media, said he saw a lot of information online in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and found it very enlightening. Ta.
“I have zero sympathy,” he said. “And the lesson from that is not, 'Let's shame the people who celebrate murder.' Look at what's going on and do something to correct it.'
Flannery's content, published under the name Dr. Glaucomflecken, began as a niche ophthalmologist joke and a way to cope with his own experiences with two cancer diagnoses and sudden cardiac arrest. But it has evolved, featuring character skits that call attention to and satirize the decisions of major health insurance companies, including United Healthcare.
He said he's never seen the debate over health care policy as heated as it was this week, and he hopes these new voices can help bring about change.
“I always talk about how powerful social media is in advocacy, because it's really the only way to put a lot of pressure on companies that are doing bad things for patients. ” he said.
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