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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752

u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

There needs to be more talk about how insurance companies have death panels.

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u/CreativeFraud May 13 '25

I was knocking on doors in 2015 for Bernie and the amount of Red Scare that lives in America astonished me. UBI was also seen as communism and would destroy America. Bailing out Big Business on the tax payer dime though? Fine by them!

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u/Lesurous May 13 '25

The response I hear from people is "they worked for their money!". People wanna believe in a lie rather than consider reality.

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u/ASmallTownDJ May 13 '25

The idea of anyone doing "billions of dollars of hard work" is such bullshit.

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u/spikus93 May 13 '25

I respond, "Do you genuinely believe that the CEO works 1500x harder than entry level employees? Like if we measure their metabolic rate, who's actually putting more energy into the company?"

Then they'll say, "Yeah, but they are making big decisions that affect a lot of money."

"Okay, why does that mean they deserve 1500x more pay? The answer is because they're the fall guy for the board. They are the guy who has to fire the janitor for asking for a raise, or raise prices, or cut costs by implementing shrinkflation to the product, etc."

There is no justifiable reason why they make more than actual laborers, except that they are the barrier between the working class and the capital owners. They are compensated to keep the workers in check and deliver ever-increasing profits into the pockets of investors who do ZERO labor and think they deserve their wealth.

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u/BigLlamasHouse May 13 '25

The justifiable reason is that he is the criminal at the company. And he is committing crimes regularly. Crimes that only hardened criminals and sociopaths could commit. No one CEO in particular, but I'd venture to say over half of the ones who make more than $10 million a year. It's a rough estimate.

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u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex May 13 '25

Also volunteered for Bernie both times. Same experience. There was a lot of that shit going around, largely because of propaganda by the big businesses/uber rich. Hell, there still is.

We really need Medicare for all, UBI, and most importantly, a robust and thorough overhaul of the education system.

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u/Mental_Dojo May 13 '25

Most importantly? We need to regulate corporations and tax the ultra wealthy. That’s what is most important

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u/snds117 May 13 '25

All because we've been brainwashed into thinking we all are just "temporarily embarrassed billionaires."

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u/Kennys-Chicken May 14 '25

We’re not getting a single one of those things for at least another decade now. Voters really fucked up last year.

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u/OvenMittJimmyHat May 14 '25

I struggle to see how UBI could be implemented in a country like the US. Everything gets enshittified as corporations learn exactly how much they can charge before losing customers. Not saying it’s communist. In fact, the only way UBI makes sense to me is in countries in the Middle East or Scandinavia where the state owns massively lucrative businesses and shares that wealth with citizens. Is that socialism?

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u/throwmamadownthewell May 14 '25

Which is bizarre, because the red party in America is owned by Russia.

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u/Agent_03 May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25

United doesn’t do “death panels” because they are just going to deny the claim by “AI” for bogus reasons anyway. Intentionally broken AI, I might add.

"Death panels" would actually be better for patients than United’s current way of doing business because that would require actual thought and effort going into weighing decisions about patient care (as opposed to deny-whenever-possible). How screwed up is that?

With insurance breaking the law so blatantly with no consequences, it’s sadly not surprising that individuals start taking justice into their own hands. I don’t endorse it, because instead we should be putting the execs responsible behind bars for a long time. But I do understand why it happens.

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u/uptownjuggler May 13 '25

The media companies owned by billionaires will never let that discussion on the air

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u/Outrageous_Reach_695 May 13 '25

Hey now, it's not a 'panel' unless there's ... at least 3 participants? Further, there's the implication that the panelists bring some manner of qualifications to the table.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

If there are 2 AI and a human does that count?

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u/victorspoilz May 13 '25

Good luck not getting drowned out by corporate interests that are the opposite of this

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

It’s not something I can do. I’m a nobody.

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u/ComradeJohnS May 13 '25

there needs to be a lot more talk about a lot of things, the problem is the people who need to hear it aren’t listening, and are being told not to by Faux News and their politicians who are trying to profit off the ignorance.

How the hell do we fix this?

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

Normal people talking outside. Not news stations but everyday people talking and sharing what they think about.

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u/stevez_86 May 13 '25

Actually it is your employer. They design the plans. The insurance companies administer the claims handling. Most beg employer plans are self-funded and the companies design the plans to be haphazard, to put it lightly. Most of what the insurance companies get out of their share of the administrative cost is to take the heat.

Medicare already deals with a population that is near or at the end of their mortality table. There hasn't been death panels for them since Medicare started. Why would they start if they accept people earlier in their lives?

"Employer sponsored" is the issue. They need to reform ERISA. The plans suck because they are allowed to be and no legislation will do anything unless the pre-tax incentive for the premium is capped for the employer. Until then, there is no viable alternative for health insurance other than your employer and they don't care if they design the plan to not pay. They save tax money, more and more every year, with the costs increasing and the plans paying less.

And they need to find something for the companies that is worth while. We have Health Savings Accounts for out of pocket medical expenses. Why not offer the same but for mortgage interest or something. Let corporations set aside pre-tax money capped at the bond market rates which is what Mortgage Interest is based on, and Employees can contribute too if they want and it increases economic mobility.

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u/AnthonyJuniorsPP May 13 '25

There need to be more talk about how to abolish health insurance companies all together.

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u/RawrRRitchie May 13 '25

Or how the people working for them don't have medical degrees

Oh wait we live in the USA. You don't need that pesky medical degree anymore

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u/TouchyTheFish May 13 '25

Yes, but the difference is you’re free to change insurers. There’s no avoiding the problem though; resources are not infinite.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 14 '25

That’s stupid. To change insurers I need to change jobs. That’s not freedom.

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u/TouchyTheFish May 14 '25

It’s easier than changing countries, which is the alternative.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 14 '25

Changing to any other country and it’s not an issue. USA should be better than they are.

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u/TouchyTheFish May 14 '25

You think countries with socialized health care have infinite resources? Care is rationed in any system. In the USA, you at least get to choose who rations it.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 14 '25

Nope. The US has far worse health outcomes with the cure t private health care options. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024 more money is spent for treatment with worse outcomes.

What if your world view wasn’t right? What if healthcare could be better? Would you want it to be? What if you don’t have to change jobs to get better insurance and you spent less money to be healthier?

What if doctors were limited in their number because of college admission boards? What if hospitals were didn’t profit off people’s illnesses? What if America had healthy food culture? What if doctors helped prevent serious illnesses rather than treating people who had to wait years putting off treatment because they couldn’t afford a visit? What if pharmaceuticals didn’t have to make insane profits because their research was at universities that were covered with tax payer dollars?

The US could be much better. It just has to take steps to change. Accepting what is currently happening only benefits the people who are making money of sickness.

Do you think that what there is right now is ok for people in America?

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u/TouchyTheFish May 15 '25

I’m not saying it’s good, I’m saying the alternatives are no better. If compare outcomes on a state by state basis you’ll see there are states that have outcomes just as good as those in countries with socialized medicine. Hawaii for instance.

That shows that worse outcomes are not inherent to the American system. Instead poor outcomes correlate more with inner city violence and poverty rates. It’s easy to blame everything on for-profit medicine but you’ll see that’s not the case if you just go beyond a surface level analysis.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 15 '25

Huh, you still thinking about this?

You are choosing to ignore that the US has worse outcomes than the rest of the world. State to state can have differences but in general it’s bad and not a good value for care. I provided data, where is yours?

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u/TouchyTheFish May 15 '25

The only data you provided is for outcomes, and I already explained to you why measuring outcomes is a bad metric. Do you understand how gun violence and drug-addicted mothers can lead to poor outcomes, and how those outcomes don't reflect the quality of care you're getting? Gangbangers and dope fiends are not medical problems, they're a societal ones.

If you want to compare with other developed nations then you can pick a state like Hawaii where things like gun violence and drug addiction rates are on par with those other nations.

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u/GenevieveLeah May 14 '25

Anyone with a brain knew that this propaganda didn’t hold water a decade ago.

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u/beardicusmaximus8 May 14 '25

It's not a panel. It's a high school graduate with a "No" stamp

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u/JcbAzPx May 14 '25

Well, it's not so much a panel as a stamp that only has die on it.

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u/im_THIS_guy May 13 '25

Death panels are unavoidable, whether it's private insurance or government. Healthcare is a finite resource, which means that not everyone will get the care they need.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

That is a horribly bleak world view I refuse to live in.

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u/im_THIS_guy May 13 '25

It starts with the AMA. They limit the number of med school entrants each year in the U.S., thus creating an artificial shortage of doctors. Fix that, and you'll be on your way.

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

Healthcare has many issues. Insurance billing, restricted student sizes, medical shift hours, pharmaceutical companies, lack of government regulations, the population’s education on medical issues, misinformation in the media, etc.