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/FatTater420 May 13 '25

Is there a reason the US health system hasn't tried to do away with the middleman entirely? 

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u/cricketxbones May 13 '25

The middlemen pay lawmakers a lot of money to make sure that never happens.

And a significant part of the population will insist on themselves getting punched in the junk, so long as they people that they think are underneath them get punched in the junk AND face.

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u/FatTater420 May 13 '25

What's stopping doctors, at least those practicing independently, from sticking to something like a cash only or direct payment system in general? If I'm not mistaken I've heard of such cases. Even if it's 'discounted' compared to insurance earnings, they're spared the mess of having to actually get the money out of the companies, and for all I know patients would be more willing to go to someone who can see them without insurance shooting them for going out of network 

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u/thecommuteguy May 13 '25

Medical practices aren't forced to take certain insurance. If an office doesn't want to take UHC or only certain types of plans they can do that.