Another Reason for Universal Healthcare

And just like that UnitedHealth Group reduced the work required for patients to receive their medication. It’s as if there was no real reason for anyone to jump through these hoops to begin with. It’s as if all the requirements for reauthorizations were made up. As if they were only in place to make it difficult for people to receive their medication and deny or delay peoples prescriptions and save UnitedHealth Group money.

It seems that way, because it is.

Once you see the truth you can’t unsee it, and that’s how I feel here. After learning about universal healthcare systems in other developed countries around the world my views of healthcare in this country have totally changed. Perhaps the most eye-opening fact I learned was that in developed nations with universal healthcare insurers, whether they are private or public, are not allowed to deny or delay claims. I can’t help but see this situation through that lens.

The problem is that UHG, a for profit health insurer, is allowed to implement their own set of made up requirements that do nothing but make it more difficult for patients to receive medical services and medication. And the arbitrary nature of these requirements is confirmed by the fact that, after receiving some “pressure,” at a moments notice they can change those requirements. So much so that they anticipate a 25 percent reduction in paper work associated with reauthorizations for the 80 drugs they selected.

When you see that you have to ask the question: If they can so easily and quickly eliminate those requirements, then why were they there in the first place? And, what other “requirements” could just as easily and quickly be eliminated? How could insurance make it easier for doctors and patients to receive the care they need and are entitled to instead of making it more difficult?

It’s a big game to them. The prize is money. The consequence is suffering.

I know because I saw it firsthand after the company I worked for was acquired by UnitedHealth Group. The focus was never on patient outcomes or the level of care patients received. Not when it got in the way of profits. UHG executives didn’t fly in for meetings to discuss how patients were doing. They flew in to ask: why we weren’t making more money, how could we make more money, and when we would make more money.

I was never a proponent of universal healthcare, especially when I was working. It took me a long time to come around to it. Reading The Healing of America was the last piece for me. I realized I wasn’t a proponent of it because I didn’t understand it and because I had succumbed to the propaganda that opposed to. TR Reid’s book gave me the information I needed to understand how it could work, and why it was so important.

Healthcare is not something to mess around with, that suits in a board room should be pontificating on. Healthcare should be easily obtainable, accessible, and affordable for everyone. And people who actually study medicine should be making the decisions. Decisions shouldn’t be made based on their impact on a stock price.

From my time working under UnitedHealth Group I still own some shares of their stock. When their CEO was murdered, the stock took a dive. When the DOJ opened up an investigation into improper billing of Medicare it dove further, and it hasn’t recovered. I told my brother I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“On the one hand, my stock is down 30 percent. On the other hand, UHG is finally getting what it deserves, and even though it hurts my wallet, I’m happy that they’re facing a reckoning.”