The firing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO opens the door for many to express their frustrations with insurance – National
For years, patients in the US health care system have been frustrated by management they don't understand.
Doctors are included in the insurance plan for one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be impossible. Provision of care and prescriptions is often wrongly denied.
The shooting of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive this week, Brian Thompson, has unleashed a wave of public emotion — outrage, anger, resentment, helplessness — among Americans who have shared personal stories of dealings with insurance companies, often seen as corporate giants.
In particular, the letter words found at the scene – “delay,” “deny” and “dismiss,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims – are words that have long criticized the industry.
“All of a sudden, I was angry again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare's denial before she died of Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2022.
Anderson said they couldn't get machines to help his wife breathe or talk – eventually, she spoke through blinking when he showed her the pictures. The family had to rely on money from a local ALS group, he said.
“The insurance business model doesn't pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio.
“When Mary was still able to speak, she told me to continue fighting this,” he added. “It has to be revealed.”
For Anderson and others, Thompson's death and the message left at the scene created an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Conversations at dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and social media are focused on the topic, as police efforts to find the gunman keep the case in the news.
Hans Maristela said he understands why the talks are raging. A 54-year-old caregiver in California was prompted to comment on Facebook about UnitedHealthcare's reputation for denying coverage. As a Catholic, he said, he is saddened by Thompson's death and sympathizes with his family, especially with the holidays around the corner.
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But he sees frustration with insurers and even among his customers, many of whom are wealthy seniors who have not been protected from high out-of-pocket costs.
“And you know the CEO of this company is paying a lot of money to get $10 million dollars a year, you're not going to have a lot of sympathy for this guy,” Maristela said, citing Thompson's compensation package that includes base salary and expenses. stock options. “Health care is a business, I understand, but the obsession with the stock price, which is profitable, should be reconsidered.”
University of Pennsylvania researcher Michael Anne Kyle said it's no surprise the conversation about insurance brokers is growing.
“People often deal with this alone, and if you see someone else talking about it, that might make you join the conversation,” she said.
Kyle studies how patients access care and said he's seen frustrations with the system over the years. Costs are rising, and insurers are using more controls like pre-authorization and physician networks to manage them. Patients are often stuck in the middle of disputes between doctors and insurers.
“Patients are already spending a lot of money on health care, and they are still facing problems with care,” she said.
Insurers often realize that most of the money they bring in goes back to pay claims, and they try to cover the rising costs and overuse of certain care.
In Ohio, Anderson said his first reaction to the CEO's firing was to wonder if it had anything to do with denial of the news, like the one he and his wife experienced.
“I am not in any way advocating the killing of people,” he said. “But I read it and said, 'I wonder if anyone had a spouse who was denied coverage.'”
It's something Will Flanary, a Portland-based ophthalmologist and comedian with a huge social media following, saw online a lot about the recent aftermath of the shooting and found himself talking a lot.
“It's completely unsympathetic,” she said. “And the lesson we can take from that is not, 'Let's shame people by celebrating murder.' No, it's: 'Look at the anger people have about this system that exploits people and do something to try to fix that.'
Flanary's content, published under the name Dr. Glaucomflecken, began as an optician's joke and a way of coping with his experiences with two bouts of cancer and a sudden cardiac arrest. But it has evolved, featuring episodes of characters that draw attention to and poke fun at the decisions of major health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare.
He said he's never seen the health insurance debate take off the way it did this week — and he hopes these new voices can help bring about change.
“I always talk about how powerful social media can be in speaking out,” he said, “because it's the only way to put a lot of pressure on these companies that are doing bad things to patients.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
