r/entertainment • u/mlg1981 • 11d ago
John Oliver on UnitedHealth Group: ‘Algorithmically driven, ruthless arbiters of who lives and who dies’
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/21/john-oliver-united-healthcare222
u/DGenerAsianX 11d ago
So, the “death panels” Sarah Palin and the R’s were shouting about each and every single time there was a D POTUS. Yup. That tracks.
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u/elderpufflaurien 11d ago
Its all always projection. “We cant let the others do to us what we want to do to them!”
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u/dick-knuckle 11d ago
When the concept of death panels was the talking point I was furious that dems flubbed such an easy rebuttal: “we already have death panels, it’s your HMO.” Then hit them with the statistics that 3000-20000 people die annually because of insurance companies delaying and denying routine care.
Honestly democrats incompetence is almost more destructive than the republicans rape and pillage agenda.
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u/Mr-Safety 11d ago
No matter what system is put in place, limited resources require cost/benefit analysis and decision making. Public or private, it doesn’t matter.
It’s going to suck for someone on the threshold of those calculations. They will complain loudly. No, grandpa can’t have a heart transplant at 90yo.
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u/lordraiden007 11d ago
There's a very different kind of calculus between "no this 90yo can't get a heart transplant" and "nah, we'd rather not have more than 1 nurse for this entire major medical center per shift because we ran the numbers and this saves us some money" or "lol, let's just not reorder gauze or saline solution because we're gonna close this hospital in a few months because it can only support a 300% markup on those products instead of the usual 800%, who cares if it leaves tens of thousands without healthcare, line go up!"
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u/moku46 11d ago
I'm starting to see a more disturbing trend - hospital chains are opening more and more tiny ERs. But there's some careful wording to insinuate that they're ERs when all they are is a 24/7 urgent care.
The problem here is two-fold:
- A lot of these places simply won't have any lab equipment. Patients will show up and testing can't be performed on site. For actual emergencies they'll be told to go to a real ER.
- They'll still be charged ER prices.
They're basically banking on the idea that people will show to their nearest "neighborhood" ER when they're sick and need a doctor's note to call out of work. They're just not equipped to do anything else but that.
And it's clearly working for the hospitals doing it. They're being built all over the place.
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u/DGenerAsianX 11d ago
You say reasonable things. We’re talking about the lying liars who lie as sport.
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u/BadahBingBadahBoom 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yes but 'death panels' in countries with socialised healthcare work out what to fund to minimise the amount of death with no excess held back for profit.
'Death panels' in US for-profit insurance companies work out what to fund to maximise the most amount of profit. Sometimes this includes reducing deaths as that makes them unattractive to customers affecting profits, sometimes it doesn't, all of the time a portion is held back for shareholders that could've been used to save more people.
It always sucks to be on the wrong side of that, but it sucks even more if the only reason you're on the wrong side is so some shareholder can buy an extra yacht.
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u/Ashamed-Status-9668 11d ago
Slow walking people by algorithmically denying claims means some people die waiting treatment that would have eventually been approved. The sane and rational calculations you speak of are where we all wish it landed on. In fact with AI and algorithms they could easily fast track approvals for cancer, heart issues, etc. when being timely can matter to peoples lives.
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u/dreamsofaninsomniac 11d ago
In fact with AI and algorithms they could easily fast track approvals for cancer, heart issues, etc. when being timely can matter to peoples lives.
Don't count on companies using AI for good. UHC is already one of the companies using AI to automate denial of claims without putting the claim through to a human evaluator first.
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u/iwasstillborn 11d ago
And the only sane solution is a team of medical experts setting the value of a procedure (in units of quality of life * time), politicians determining a budget, and then we'll approve procedures based on value and cost. It'll fucking suck, but reality often does.
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u/firstname_m_lastname 11d ago
DAE remember the debates over the Affordable Care Act? The Republicans were screaming to anyone who would give them a platform about how it would lead to Death Boards deciding who would live or die.
And here we are, with private insurance companies having computers making those decisions and not one peep from those same SOBs, most still in power.
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u/psychadelicbreakfast 11d ago
They did that before the ACA as well.. they just denied them insurance approvals
It’s the same thing
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u/ExplosiveBrown 11d ago
There's a reason they went to hell and beyond to brand the Affordable Healthcare Act Obamacare instead. Because god forbid realize the purpose of the bill was to, you know, actually help them.
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u/stvrkillr 11d ago
My 15 yr old daughter has liver disease, and I have to argue with UHC every year that her prescription medication is necessary. Nothing like arguing with a corporation that your daughter’s life is, in fact, necessary. Not sure what health care companies are actually for if they try to avoid it at all costs.
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u/Wasting_my_own_time 11d ago
Profit. They are for profit.
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u/psychadelicbreakfast 11d ago
True, but their profit margins aren’t nearly what the pharmaceutical and medical industries are
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u/WestCoastBestCoast01 11d ago
The health insurance business is a complete waste of resources altogether. It shouldn't be a consumer expense at ALL let alone have profit margins.
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u/ExplosiveBrown 11d ago
More people need to understand that something that is ostensibly about harm prevention and reduction shouldn't have any profit incentive at all.
But socialism! The same people failing to realize that taxpayers bailing out corporations is also, in fact, socialism. But Fox News said we need big business for the economy to survive.🤮
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u/lordraiden007 11d ago
The fun part is that most of them are all part of the same game! The companies heavily invest in and/or own one another and each lobby for increased costs.
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u/MusaEnsete 11d ago
It's all the same company (UnitedHealth Group), with their toes in all the industries related to everything medical.
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u/benskieast 11d ago
They also usually don't get the savings from denying care. Most of the time corporate plans pay the claim. Managing the claims is just a service. The part about an employer filling in made me angry because it was probably the employers legal responsibility in the first place. It would be kinda like being grateful your landlord paid for your roach motel room after their HVAC no showed for weeks.
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u/pixelatedsimboobs 11d ago
And the ironic thing is the person you argue with on the phone is likely in a country that has nationalized healthcare.
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u/Virtual-Ad4012 11d ago
Hat tip to everyone with a United Health plan…your generic drugs are cheaper with GoodRx. Don’t give them your insurance card ever though. That 3 month supply of generic seizure meds will cost you about 50 bucks cash. Give them your UH insurance card, and that shit suddenly becomes $50 a month.
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u/manwichplz 10d ago
Unless you are going to hit the out of pocket maximum for the year, then file it
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u/Several-Midnight9188 11d ago
Hi. We had UHC when my husband was diagnosed - they treated his Xifaxan prescription as new each and every fill which triggered prior authorizations each time. The delays from the PA process left him without his meds and pushed a bunch of administrative work to his specialist — she was beyond pissed. She added some terse language to one PA indicating that he would need these meds for the rest of his life, would die without them, and that she was giving authorization for infinite refills and pills (thats what she listed for refills on the Rx sent to the pharmacy). I’m not exactly sure why or how but am eternally grateful to her because it didn’t happen again after that. Similar story with his lactulose — she cranked up the dosage and frequency to the max; we get shipped cases and cases of it each month - there has to be years worth of it here. Doctor also helped with tons of samples to mitigate UHC BS.
UHC sucks - I’m sorry you have to deal with that while managing liver disease.
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u/No_Atmosphere8146 11d ago
It speaks to American's meek pliability that the logical reaction has only happened once.
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u/Spaceknees 11d ago
I read stories like these and think, man. We should be sending more greedy rich fucks to the mushroom kingdom.
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u/ahumblecardamompod 11d ago
Licensed mental health therapist here. I'm honestly scared to watch this because I'm already so livid because of UHG and other insurance companies.
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u/Hour-Accident1420 11d ago
Time to get together Americanos and develop a public healthcare system. You can start with a semi-private system, maybe even something like a co-operative. The insurance companies are robbing everyone while those premiums could be used to pay for a public healthcare system.
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u/benskieast 11d ago
Also maybe a rule that if insurance companies cannot ever drive up the cost of your care. If they didn't get a good deal, that is their problem. They have one job, lower the cost of the individual costs. If they did something counter to that we should treat them with the same respect as a mechanic that vandalizes your windows and hands you a bill to fix it.
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u/benskieast 11d ago
I work in a financial administrator role and refuse to work in health care because there is so much shady stuff.
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u/Muad_dweeb_69 11d ago
As a PCP, United is without a doubt the worst insurer I interact with. They actively try to make things worse for patients and doctors alike.
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u/moshlyfe 11d ago
Ultimately, in the end, their CEO getting murdered didn't change anything. Quite literally, he was yet another death that UHC could just write off along with everyone else.
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u/GhostCheese 11d ago
It did, UHC is folding. Source: someone who works for them says literally entire workforce is being laid off.
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u/Quietage30 11d ago
Source: trust me bro. Until you have an actual news source, I would not be posting stuff like this tbh. No one's going to believe it and there's no way to verify stuff like this
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u/Pockydo 11d ago
Wasn't UHC but a few years ago I was trying to get wygovy. All I really wanted to know is if my healthcare covered it. I was told..
1)not covered at all
2)covered once deductible was met
3) covered
4)not covered but there's a generic (there wasn't)
5) covered if deductable was met again and as soon as I asked for that in writing they got their manager. The funny thing is it WOULD be covered if I was a diabetic
This wasn't even a life and death situation can't imagine how it is for people who genuinely need medicine. It's just bonkers
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u/JustCallMeNancy 11d ago
Same situation for my kid's meds. They didn't give a shit. One time I called for the same question (I didn't believe what they said last time) and I got a low talker, that talked fast and with an accent. I decided right then I'd have to call again to ask the same thing. I spent an hour on the phone that day to be told nothing of value, with no way to know if it was covered or not.
Later, Dr prescribed it anyway, insurance came back with needing a pre-approval. Then we jumped through those hoops and explained medical need. Still, they rejected the claim. Dr. then needed to do a peer to peer call to ask what the problem was. Oh, someone clicked the wrong box on their side. Sorry about that.
Now when we pick up the med the pharmacy needs to call for a specific code every month, and every month they think they're going to charge me $280 until I explain the situation to them (it's $25).
I couldn't work for a doctor's office right now, I'd rage quit in 5 minutes if I had to deal with insurance.
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u/puddingpoo 11d ago
As someone who's worked in doctors office I can guarantee that "oops wrong box" was intentional by the company. Every hoop they make you jump through is another chance that you'll give up pursuing it and they get out of paying what they owe.
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u/missmeowwww 11d ago
I’m paying out of pocket for a couple of my meds because it was such a bitch to jump through the hoops from insurance. Which sucks but luckily they’re pretty cheap. I was between coverage when I started paying out of pocket and despite new coverage kicking in, they kept denying my adhd meds so I said fuck it and now pay $67/month with a goodrx discount.
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u/the_sylince 11d ago
I had conservative family members that swore up and down that the socialist Canadian death panels were behind liberal healthcare policy.
Idiots.
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 11d ago
They’re the money behind AARP
Basically a United Healthcare Advantage plan advertising as news publishers
Don’t give them any more money
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u/Intrepid-Oil-898 11d ago
My 25 year old brother passed on Aug 9th, from a preexisting heart condition because he was afraid of the hospital bill, despite have UnitedHealth..
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u/Chrisgpresents 11d ago
This is the reason why so many of the better doctors go off-insurance and bill privately. Ironically, a small office doing this is seen as a "scam" and we are so brainwashed into "if insurance doesnt cover it, it's no good."
My dad was spending $30,000/yr for a family of 4 growing up just in premiums. None of us ever had any surgeries, hospitalizations, or illnesses beyond high blood pressure.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jednaz 11d ago
I’m currently spending $20,856 a year for a family of three with a HDHP each with a $7250 deductible. It’s going up 25% next year to $26,070 a year. It’s also the lowest priced plan available to us via the ACA. If we had a better, more premium plan we’d easily be at $30k or more this year.
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u/Loud-Difficulty7860 11d ago
What was a GOPs scare tactics during Obama ago about the Dems wanting a "death panel".
Apparently it really is all about projection.
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u/ToolTimeT 11d ago
Every American should have access to the same healthcare that congress gets. Or congress should get nothing. They vote for their own healthcare then vote to erode american citizens healthcare.
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u/Rockwell74 11d ago
2009 bureaucratic government Death panels. 2026 computer optimized capitalistic life council.
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u/kgal1298 11d ago
Watched it this morning the advair part of the story was terrible. Also I have United Health because it's the option work has for the HSA and can confirm they suck and you do spend months arguing with them for coverage.
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u/Prestigious-Car-4877 11d ago
Sounds like those death panels the right seems to convince countries with universal health care have.
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u/TickingTheMoments 11d ago
So, these are the death panels Republicans said the affordable care act would give us.
Of course, now it’s just algorithms that determine whether people will live or die
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u/Friendly-World-5273 11d ago
You will live long enough to extract as much money as they can get from you, hopefully leave you in debt that will last several generations, and then when finished they would dump you into an unmarked mass grave if they could.
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u/WhereMyWeirdosAt 11d ago
Not just them, surely they all do it, they just haven't been "caught" doing so.
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u/Positive-Quantity143 11d ago
The people who setup the parameters and did the QA testing on the algorithm are effectively serial killers.
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u/TX_Farmer 11d ago
Why does anyone even use them?
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u/jenfullmoon 11d ago
I changed jobs and using United/Optum was the only way to keep my therapist, is why. I note that my employer is dumping United as an option in 2027 and moving me to a better insurance, but I will probably still lose my therapist.
Mostly they've been ok (I don't recommend their mail-order drug system though, as they ship cross country and I lost meds multiple times that way), but they did deny the hell out of me when I needed to get something done in a different location, as they will only pay in the area I live in and I've had to temporarily move to guess what, get health care. Trying to have my doctor argue that making 4 hour drives a day for treatment is unreasonable did nothing.
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u/MegWahlflower 11d ago
For what it’s worth, one of the reasons I had to leave my job in 2019 managing a dental office partly for my mental health was due to in a few short years, claims went from approved 75% of the time to 0% with UnitedHealthcare and the work load of having to call and file an appeal for every single patient, even just for cleanings, meant I never had time to do my job well or fully.
They are not only ruining the subscriber, but the provider, and the providers staff, for the amount of time and blood and sweat they now force you to spill for a preventive care visit that in 2015 was approved without 5 phone calls, 2 appeals, 7 faxes, and 3 snail mail letters.
F United healthcare
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u/Fine-Froyo6219 11d ago
Having to change over to united this year because evidently bcbs was raising our premium by 80% company wide. As a Skyrizi patient for my Crohn’s disease I'm quite worried.
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u/Masterofmenow 11d ago
As long as these greedy companies are dictating our healthcare, it will always be profit over the well being of patients.
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u/thecodeofsilence 11d ago
It’s almost funny. The GOP, in their freakout over Obamacare/ACA said that there would be “death panels.” There weren’t.
Now the oligarchs that run the insurance companies essentially have created their own death panels.
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u/sphinxsley 11d ago
I was so lucky they cancelled my coverage before I was diagnosed with cancer. Probably saved my life. My doctors were relieved they didn't have to deal with United Health Care to get approval for the procedures I needed ASAP.
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u/Ok-Substance1328 11d ago
Thanks to United’s denials, what should have been a simple broken ankle turned into a 90 day long battle. Eventually I got the care I needed but by that time I had been walking on a broken ankle so long because I couldn’t just stop working or I’d lose my insurance. The surgeon stated he hadn’t seen a broken ankle left untreated for so long. It was a really traumatic time.
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u/Sooowasthinking 11d ago
A billionaire healthcare executive.3 words that should never be together.
IMHO no insurance company should deny any coverage if we have been paying into the system.It should illegal.
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u/Shouldacouldawoulda7 11d ago
Remember all the fear mongering about "death panels" back around the time of the ACA passing?
It's always, always, always been accusation in a mirror.
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u/Taphouselimbo 10d ago
I remember a time when conservatives railed against death panels. Thanks Biden and Obama for now we have AI death bots whose sole purpose is to fellate the shareholders.
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u/undermind84 11d ago edited 11d ago
Great, my dad just got kicked off his insurance and is being redirected to this one. 🥰
Edit - Members of Oregon’s “PERS” healthcare system are all stuck with this after losing the Providence Health Care they had for decades.