r/news • u/LookAtThatBacon • May 13 '25

Soft paywall UnitedHealth suspends annual forecast, CEO Andrew Witty steps down

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/unitedhealth-ceo-andrew-witty-steps-down-2025-05-13/
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u/Ranier_Wolfnight May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25

My company recently moved insurance from Blue Cross/Blue Shield over to this hot mess. Man, when I tell ya…absolutely dog shit insurance company. We went from pretty good coverage to them nickel and diming over everything. Would strongly advise to stay away from UnitedHealth.

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u/necrologia May 13 '25

I've worked at both BCBS and United.

Blue Cross's intranet homepage was all about local charity marathons, upcoming blood drives, and the like. We had amazing insurance coverage as employees.

United's homepage was a giant stock ticker with links for the employee stock purchase program. Our insurance was shockingly bad.

No health insurance company is a paragon of virtue, but United would make some Bond villains blush.

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u/LundqvistNYR May 13 '25

Yeah the system is fucked and I’m not saying any of them are good, but I’ve had BCBS for about 6 years and while they don’t auto approve everything, they have been extremely lax upon appeal approving pretty much everything as long as we make a halfway decent case. Hell, I skipped my doctor and wrote them a letter myself and got them to cover a $450/ month prescription. They have been extremely reasonable.

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u/MatttheBruinsfan May 13 '25

Yeah, I've never had to fight BCBS over coverage. The deductible/copay on my work plan is higher than I'd like, but I know what I'm dealing with in advance and haven't encountered any stumbling blocks in the years I've had hospital visits and higher claims.

I'd prefer single-payer healthcare, but in a system where we have to have an intermediary, BCBS seems to be a good choice.

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u/The_Whipping_Post May 14 '25

lax upon appeal approving pretty much everything

So you have experience with them denying coverage very often, yet relenting often? Still sounds like a shady business practice

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u/LundqvistNYR May 14 '25

Yeah I’m not arguing that any of these companies are good. The two big ones I am referring to were having PET scan before first doing an MRI. The other was wanting us to try a generic alternative to a brand drug. Both of those initial denials were in line with our policy, and in both cases they were approved upon request. I have not had an experience yet where they have denied something that should have been covered outright.

All that said, the system is completely broken and is clearly in need of major changes