My chirp, yesterday, titled “Glad I Am Canadian” was taken down my Facebook for some reason. It dealt with the social media reaction to the death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. This chirp might be taken down as well.
The chirp highlighted the suffering that clients of private health insurers have gone through when their claims are rejected. For example, a family seeing a loved one die because their life saving treatment was denied by the health insurer. The tweets, above, are examples of the outrage.
One journalist put it this way,
“No shit murder is bad. The [commentary and jokes] about the United CEO aren’t really about him; they’re about the rapacious healthcare system he personified and which Americans feel deep pain and humiliation about.”
ProPublica reported the following,
“more than 200 million Americans are covered by private health insurance. But data from state and federal regulators shows that insurers reject about 1 in 7 claims for treatment. Many people, faced with fighting insurance companies, simply give up: One study found that Americans file formal appeals on only 0.1% of claims denied by insurers under the Affordable Care Act.”
It should be noted that UnitedHealthcare reject an astonishing 32% of the claims submitted to them. this rejection rate is more than double in the industry average.
I cannot even imagine the pain of the 32% of UnitedHealthcare clients having their claims rejected. How many deaths did that result in? How many loved ones suffered?
I am truly glad I am Canadian. Let’s see if this chirp gets taken down by Facebook.
All I got for today.