United Healthcare CEO murder.....

[bae]

I do loathe the US health insurance system.

I spent two hours on the phone yesterday, dealing with two different insurers and 2 different state agencies (and narrowly avoiding talking to a 3rd, because the person at the second told me it would make things worse, and fixed my problem herself). Wasted time for all of us.

The facts:

I went down yesterday to pick up a medication at my pharmacy that is normally $0.79 cost to me, per month. It was, yesterday, $12.90, which seemed off, so I asked the pharmacist what the deal was. She typed away at her terminal a bit, and came back with “because you don’t have insurance, that’s odd. Looks like you won’t until 1/1/2025”.

I was unable to resolve the situation in the store via phone or phone-based web browser.

When I returned home, I dug into the problem. Turns out, last month, when it came time during “open enrollment” to indicate I wished to continue with my plan, Mistakes Were Made by the state-provided health insurance navigation system, which I am forced to use here. I had to give it some additional information, which seemed to be mostly address/identity related. During that process, it, without my consent, cancelled my current insurance, which had been valid until the end of this year, and put me on the lowest-level state-provided insurance plan. It then would not allow me to renew my existing plan, or select any other. I called my insurance-navigator specialist (someone paid by the state to unwedge things), and he fixed it up within 30 minutes, and had me properly signed back up, or so I thought.

Until I discovered to my horror yesterday that as a result of this 30 minute shell game in November, indeed I have had *no* insurance for nearly a month, and won’t have it until January. (Again, the cancellation of my current plan was done by a web-application and backend database, without my consent, and I suspect the implementers aren’t sophisticated enough to even *spell* “AI”…)

I was totally exposed, insurance-wise.

The people yesterday at the various agencies treated my issue with care and concern, and in only two hours of multi-agency cooperation, managed to unravel things, figure out what happened, and get me on at least some minimal coverage until the end of the month. (This coverage is horrid, my designated provider on this is the next county over, and would take me a day to get to, and has none of my medical information or history. But if I break a leg tomorrow, guess where I have to go…)

Anyways, the system needs redone top-to-bottom, but the way to do that is not by killing people in the streets.

[bae]

Another minor health insurance rant:

I live in one of the healthiest counties in the USA. However, our demographic is very skewed towards the older side of the age spectrum.

Over the past few years, insurers have been pulling out of the county completely - no longer renewing policies, or offering new ones.

We are down to 1 or 2 choices, in a good year. People who use Medicare/… insurance (I don’t pretend to understand the various Medi* programs) are basically SOL in the coming year, *nobody* is offering the insurance they want in the county next year.

I’m not sure how our state insurance regulators allow this situation, but there it is.

[iris lilies]

Another minor health insurance rant:

I live in one of the healthiest counties in the USA. However, our demographic is very skewed towards the older side of the age spectrum.

Over the past few years, insurers have been pulling out of the county completely - no longer renewing policies, or offering new ones.

We are down to 1 or 2 choices, in a good year. People who use Medicare/… insurance (I don’t pretend to understand the various Medi* programs) are basically SOL in the coming year, *nobody* is offering the insurance they want in the county next year.

I’m not sure how our state insurance regulators allow this situation, but there it is.

I read this yesterday and forgot to come back and comment. It is unconsciousable that you were without health insurance due to a technical screwup. I hate that.

I am happy with my health insurance both the private parts and the Medicare. I cant remember that we’ve had any insurance bills. we of course pay monthly premiums.

I have a direct care physician. Earlier in the week I called her office to schedule a minor procedure and ask that they fit me in within the next few weeks. She said “come in tomorrow. “Since I couldn’t do that, she said “come in the next day.” This is my actual physician, not her office staff.

I have no trouble with my direct care physician and I recommend recommended everyone try that model if you have a physician practicing near you .

yesterday I heard on NPR a program that was moaning about health insurance companies. They interviewed an American physician from Romania who now has a direct care practice. She has a specialty of some kind. She related how she used to spend so much time in her previous practice negotiating with insurance companies and it was awful.

So yeah, direct care is a way to go when that is an option. I realize it’s not always an option for everyone.

[littlebittybobby]

okay----I believe it is appropriate for me to post this photo(see photo), since this thread has wandered off-topic. But yeah---Fr Guido Sarducci. What do you think o' that? Hope thatt helps you some. 2024-12-13 (6).jpg

[Rogar]

This is my small, but recent story. My dermatologist prescribed a cream that supposedly would be available the next day. I've had the same prescription a couple of years before with no problems. When I went to pick it up at the pharmacy, they had bounced it back to the doctors office asking for justification, claiming there were cheaper alternatives. They suggested when I return a few days later, which I did and they were still waiting for a final approval and had processed the request a second time. Of course I could have called the Dr. office or insurance, but the pharmacy said I could pay cash and it would be $40.00 which I did. About two weeks later I got a letter from insurance saying the prescription had been approved.

So I'm guessing hundreds of dollars in Drs. office times, insurance times, and pharmacy times, letters and FAXes etc. were all quibbling over $40. due to poor insurance provider efficiency. At least I wasn't really sick.

[Rogar]

The apparent shooter seems to have abandoned his bike near Central Park before catching a taxi. His bike hasn't been recovered and is assumed to have subsequently been stollen. There's a slice of a declining society.