they/them might be giants ☭Dec 5, 2024
“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.
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 threadMY ACCT HAS MOVED TO {below}

@eanopolsky @JGuz @babadookspinoza

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

Jan 10, 2025 at 10:28pmWeb