Shortly before the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, an insurance industry trade group released a poll suggesting most Americans are satisfied with their private plans.
Now, I personally have never had major problems with an insurer. Finding in-network docs is a pain and the plans all suck on mental-health coverage, but no denials, etc., so I guess I’ve been satisfied. But here’s the dirty little secret: I’m the industry’s favorite customer—a generally healthy person who rarely seeks care. My employer and I pay in, and they don’t have to pay out. They love me!
You know whose claims giants like UnitedHealthcare, Elevance, and CVS routinely deny or delay—sometimes until death—in the name of maximizing profits? Sick people. Hurt people. Expensive people.
Dr. Ed Weisbart, board secretary of Physicians for a National Health Program, recalls treating patients who rationed insulin or eschewed oxygen, unable to breathe because they couldn’t afford it. Our problem with soaring costs, Weisbart says, has little to do with overtreatment and a lot to do with administering a “bloated, Byzantine,” Wall Street-worshipping industry that makes us sicker and poorer—and which, in his view, needs to go bye-bye. “I don't think people care whether it's single payer or quadruple payer,” he told me. “People want health care. They don't care about health insurance.” I learned a ton from this interview. I hope you will, too.
—Michael Mechanic
P.S. Did you listen to this weekend's episode of Reveal? A partnership with The Competition podcast, from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, the episode is focused on a trip reporter Shima Oliaee made to observe a competition amongst the nation's best and brightest teen girls. Oliaee just happened to be there the day the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts to revisit the fall of Roe, through the eyes of high school girls.
