they/them might be giants ☭
“Healthcare provider” is such a bullshit euphemism. Health insurance companies aren’t the providers of care; they’re the obstacles, the parasitic middle-men leeching off the system to the point of widespread breakdown. Brian Thompson’s company didn’t provide shit except returns to investors.
Dec 5, 2024 at 3:52pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadPetesmom *has moved*Dec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza
It would be an interesting exercise to compare how much insurance companies make in profits by employing their armies of deniers vs how much they could make as straight up depositories of our healthcare funds and just paid the fucking bills for actual health care.
The cost of their armies of deniers has to at least equal what real healthcare would cost.
Show threadeanopolskyDec 5, 2024

@JGuz @babadookspinoza I've done that exercise.

In Q3 2024, they spent about 85% of our premiums on care: https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/content/dam/UHG/PDF/investors/2024/UNH-Q3-2024-Release.pdf - page 8

If they were saints and spent 100% of our premiums on care (i.e. all-volunteer workforce, no profit), they could give us a small 15% break on premiums. Deductibles, copays, and denials would still cause financial ruin and death for customers.

If we want to fix that, we would need single payer universal healthcare.

Show threadPetesmom *has moved*Dec 5, 2024
@eanopolsky @babadookspinoza
We 100,000% should have universal healthcare. It is the dirty underbelly of capitalism that allows our “representatives” to keep that from us.
Thank you for doing that study!
Show threadMY ACCT HAS MOVED TO {below}Jan 10, 2025

@eanopolsky @JGuz @babadookspinoza

You excluded Optum's profits, and assumed accurate accounting with no mislabeling of profits.

Show threadGrovewestFeb 25, 2025
@JGuz @babadookspinoza They don't have armies of deniers, they build it into their systems. Its automated. I briefly worked as a programmer for a health care insurer. They wanted me to do legal but clearly unethical things, it was scammy stuff so I left. Regulators have to play wack-a-mole and are just overwhelmed.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Dec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza they are parasites
Show threadPolka TrainDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza
”Health Care Moat” doesn’t have the vibes we were going for
Show threadGilbert PilzDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza The entire health insurance industry is "exhibit A" in the case against the idea that there is such a thing as "the wisdom of the markets". They are engaged in rent seeking at an enormous scale. Any sane system would eliminate them but capitalism is incapable of identifying (much less ameliorating) globally harmful actors (e.g. organizations that make the system more expensive for everyone) if they are generating good returns for their investors.
Show threadViolet MadderDec 5, 2024

@babadookspinoza

Healthcare extortionists.

Show threadJeffandthekidDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza Speaking truth in the age of Trump? Save your strength in case you get sick. Even in Canada “healthcare” is at death’s door. Our gatekeepers are bought and paid for at the provincial level.
Show threadEhproque has movedDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza in fact I was talking to my insurance yesterday (not American, thank God), and they refer to the hospital as "the healthcare provider".
Show threadniniDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza “healthcare profiteer”
Show threadBee O'Problem Dec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza and cybercriminals (apparently they paid $22 million to some ransomware group)
Show threadKaren StrickholmDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza 1,000%... They are leeches.
Show threadbookworks 💙Dec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza *Healthcare providers*are just that. People/facilities who provide care/services. Insurance companies are *Payers*. (But they sure as hell are doing everything to avoid it.)
Show threadEvan MintoDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza Health insurance companies are leeches for sure, but I think the term "healthcare provider" usually refers to doctors! (Insurance companies are called "payers" despite the fact that uh, their main goal is to avoid paying for anything)
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKDec 5, 2024

@VamptVo @babadookspinoza

in Britain (a "mixed economy" of public and private organisations providing the free at source national health care), the definition of a "healthcare provider" is an organisation which directly provides care to patients (they can be either part of the NHS or a private company).

We do have health insurers but those are mostly only used by rich old people wanting to avoid waiting lists for routine operations.

Show threadEstarriol, Terrorist DragonDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza and shareholders like him.
Show threadJeff CDec 5, 2024

@babadookspinoza My experience with other poorly run insurers* suggests that cutting off the head does little to change the nature or culture of the company. The state insurance commissioner of Minnesota should issue an immediate edict for UHC to retain all records, and should begin the process of its liquidation.

* I was contracted by California to assist in the liquidation of Executive Life in 1991.

#health #law

Show threadfloydgumpDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza
Show threadXeno Danger EvilDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza i fully agree. How do we counter the other argument that they make about the government being the parasitic middlemen? I think they have "othered" the government so far away from "we the people" that they can't wrap their head around the concept of public service.
Show threadxs4me2Dec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza 🎯
Show threadGulfofMexicoDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza For a long time I have called such corporations “wealthcare providers.” Their primary mission is to care for the wealth of their shareholders, not the health of their subscribers.
Show threadPossumanthaDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza just call them death panels.
Show threadCiferDec 5, 2024
@babadookspinoza I hear they've already found a suitable replacement.
Show threadnotdavenodolphinsDec 6, 2024
@babadookspinoza maybe we should start calling them something closer to what they actually are: healthcare gatekeepers.
Show threadFalcon DarkstarDec 6, 2024
@babadookspinoza who the fuck calls the insurer a healthcare provider? Those words are usually used for the people doing the actual work.
Show threadJohn ChapmanDec 6, 2024
@babadookspinoza I think this sums it up pretty well...