Unitedhealth Pays Its Own Physician Groups 17% More Than Outside Ones

I thought the operative term was "medically necessary"? "would help with healing" can theoretically cover everything from protein shakes for knee injuries, to iPads to help with stroke recovery. A CPM machine is on the far end of this, closer to "medically necessary" than the other examples, but you have to draw the line somewhere, so some reasonable-but-theoretically-optional equipment gets excluded.

You are confusing "health insurance" with a "system that guarantees healthcare as a human-right". Those are different things.

The purpose of health insurance is:

- To constrain healthcare coverage to the minimum allowed by law or the plan contract, therefore maximizing profit margins.

- To provide a shared risk coverage pool to pay for treatment for catastrophic health events that are unforeseen.

- To provide a product to be used as leverage by employers over employees as part of the "benefits" of a compensation package.

Healthcare as a human-right doesn't exist in the United States unless a health situation has gotten so bad that you end up in the emergency room, which is then legally required to provide you emergency healthcare.

Doctors charge massively high prices, which is why insurance bills are high. Doctors have the most powerful trade union on the planet and strictly limit residencies, thus limiting new doctor supply and keeping prices super high.

I wonder if the data is sold off and if so whether it's properly anonymized...

Spoken as a software developer who's salaries are approaching or even surpassing doctor salaries while working on optimising "engagement" (or how to make their app the most addictive).

And its not even a product we want. We dont buy it. The companies we work for do, and never have to dogfood any of it. But for the rest of us, its a take it or leave it proposition.

> doctors are a scarce and greedy bunch.

Speaking of that, an MD is the ONLY profession who is solely controlled how many can apply is controlled by Congress.

Get rid of that, and that would fix a facet.

But getting rid of insurance companies would also work a great deal. Or at least, decoupling work/med insurance would be a start.

Even going full competitive capitalism OR full socialism would be better than the garbage we have now.

Given how much cheaper things like body shop repairs are if you do not have insurance, is it really clear that Geico does not cause car repairs to be expensive?

And for that matter, get emergency health care without insurance and then fight the cost to get a massive reduction, and you'll wonder whether it actually is UHC and their ilk that help make healthcare unaffordable ...

the costs of services are arbitrary and need to be addressed before we can realistically deal with how any insurance pool works, in the US both parties have chiseled at this over the last decade - from getting prices more transparent, to attempting to have a large scale state negotiator - and this makes the conversation more palatable in gaining consensus

not close, but it's not as partisan as people think, despite the parallel existence of entrenched interests

what doesn't have consensus is a forced insurance pool that doesn't address the costs and has no ability to negotiate those costs (yes, this is partially due to the bill being gutted and a handicapped version being the only thing that passed) a deeper review and regulation of costs is the only thing that can help reach consensus

Things you can get in 72 hours anywhere near a decently sized American city such as an MRI scan can take months in Canada.

We don’t have evidence we live in sufficient abundance to guarantee this sustainably even in rich countries. Particularly when bare necessities are decried as cruelty and so cost creep comes to pass.

What we can do: free basic nutrition for all, free prenatal and neonatal care, free preventative medicine and annual check-ups, free access to generics where medically necessary, and a fixed amount of water and electricity to each household. Not enough to be remotely comfortable or long lived. But enough to survive.

Btw-- make sure to double the MOOP since catastrophes can easily straddle the end of one 12-month period and the beginning of the next 12-month period.

This is pretty much the Republican plan for healthcare.

Assuming you have business income to pay for insurance.

Nowhere is absolutely perfect but it's much easier to navigate, and many developed countries have very good care for emergencies and/or life-threatening ailments. It might suck to investigate something chronic but non-life threatening, it won't stress you if you think you are having a stroke and need to call an ambulance.

In Sweden it's about 2x higher. Of course, they're still experts, so it's somewhat expensive, but not like in the US.