UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
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Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#2.. and think of how much of that money went right into their lobbying/bribing on the hill to make sure they don't get regulated.
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#3shocked, shocked I tell you
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#4https://archive.ph/cg4we
I do not like UnitedHealth, I do not like our existing crop of health insurance executives, and I might even be viscerally glad at some level that the UnitedHealth CEO was killed in a world where justice clearly takes a back seat to greed, but I wish the headline didn't say "overcharged", because there's no established amount of markup that is the correct amount of markup other than what people end up paying. Is that shitty? Yes. Does it violate a social contract? I think so. But tell me how much the right amount to charge is first. Is that cost? Cost+percentage? They've chosen their percentage. What's the correct one instead?
The article body presents the story in a more meaningful way, "UnitedHealth Group is charging patients a markup for key life-saving drugs that could easily exceed their cost by a factor of ten or more".
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#5https://archive.ph/cg4we I do not like UnitedHealth, I do not like our existing crop of health insurance executives, and I might even be viscerally glad at some level that the UnitedHealth CEO was killed in a world where justice clearly takes a back seat to greed, but I wish the headline didn't say "overcharged", because there's no established amount of markup that is the correct amount of markup other than what peop…
They've chosen 90% margin (cost + 1000%).
Semicon tool builders (my industry) have margins around 50% (cost + 100%). This is considered high margin manufacturing work.
To match United Health's margins we'd need to raise prices by 5x.
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#6https://archive.ph/cg4we I do not like UnitedHealth, I do not like our existing crop of health insurance executives, and I might even be viscerally glad at some level that the UnitedHealth CEO was killed in a world where justice clearly takes a back seat to greed, but I wish the headline didn't say "overcharged", because there's no established amount of markup that is the correct amount of markup other than what peop…
They've chosen 90% margin (cost + 1000%). Semicon tool builders (my industry) have margins around 50% (cost + 100%). This is considered high margin manufacturing work. To match United Health's margins we'd need to raise prices by 5x.
I agree, but we can't talk about "over" without talking about where the line is.
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#7Nothing is shocking about the insurance industry anymore since they’ve been pulling this kind of thing for years. To me the most shocking thing is the people who defend them. I understand the drive to make money and build huge businesses: what confuses me is that we treat human health the same as things that don’t directly impact the health of people. It seems to me that there are endless opportunities to get insanely rich: I’ve never understood why we don’t set aside certain areas and just agree that they are not the place to do that. (I know, leaving potential profit on the table is sacrilegious to those who worship at the altar of the almighty dollar…)
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#8I don’t understand how an insurance company can overcharge consumers. Isn’t their job to pay what pharmacies and hospitals charge? Do insurance companies get money if they approve the overcharged prices? If so how? I thought their revenue was the premiums which are fixed. Is the extra money because people are forced to pay everything after the little the insurance company pays?
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#9https://archive.ph/cg4we I do not like UnitedHealth, I do not like our existing crop of health insurance executives, and I might even be viscerally glad at some level that the UnitedHealth CEO was killed in a world where justice clearly takes a back seat to greed, but I wish the headline didn't say "overcharged", because there's no established amount of markup that is the correct amount of markup other than what peop…
This is exactly it. They are charging that price because that price will be paid, and this maximizes their overall profit. In other similar situations this would spur competition, which would ultimately drive down prices to a reasonable level. But in the healthcare industry competition is often prohibited or made very difficult by law. You can cite the patent system as an example of this, but another horrible one is the "certificate of need" laws, which should infuriate you.
Re: UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
#10https://archive.ph/cg4we I do not like UnitedHealth, I do not like our existing crop of health insurance executives, and I might even be viscerally glad at some level that the UnitedHealth CEO was killed in a world where justice clearly takes a back seat to greed, but I wish the headline didn't say "overcharged", because there's no established amount of markup that is the correct amount of markup other than what peop…
All I'm going to say is that Optum Specialty Pharmacy is the sole source that UHC will accept for a lot of special drugs. For example UHC offers insurance for IVF including a separate cap for medications, but if you use their insurance you have to order through their subsidiary Optum Specialty Pharmacy and the prices triple or quadruple over MSRP if you buy from OSP using insurance versus if you pay cash. They also won't tell you this until you're in the middle of a cycle and an order gets held up because you're out of insurance, but since they billed insurance you're on the hook for the remaining several-thousand dollars because if you stop the drugs you're just out the money and the medication and have to wait another month.
I don't know if I can give them the benefit of the doubt on the cancer drugs because of this.