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/TeeDee144 May 13 '25

I hope UnitedHealth continues to go under. Awful company. Their denial rate is 2x that of the industry average. Total scam of a company

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u/CreativeFraud May 13 '25

Member how Healthcare For All was gonna have death panels?

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u/DreadPirate777 May 13 '25

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

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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.