A confidential briefing intended for the C-suite is now public — and it reveals a company more focused on rewarding shareholders than meeting the needs of patients.
The only issue I have with Bernie and AOC is that they are making Single Payer into a liberal cause. It's not. Single Payer is agreement between a government and the governed that health care should be provided to the populace. It is a government obligation everywhere in the First world...except the US.
If you ask a conservative Canadian MP, they are incredulous that healthcare could be a liberal issue, and of course they are right.
If Single Payer is only taken up by the hard left, it will be that much harder to get it to occur. Healthcare is an issue for everyone.
The United States of America is considered to be 249 years old as of 2025.
This is based on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which formally declared the thirteen colonies to be free and independent states.
How much time do we have left?
B.S. and A.O.C. are the only 'game' in town talkin' the talk and WALKIN' the walk.
Obama had all 3 three Houses and failed because he was a Right Leaning Centrist and a Corporatist to boot, who should have known better and probably did, yet didn't want to close off his funnel from the monied interest$, because......wait for it....Capitalism.
By the way, he also walked off with a bundle of $$$ and is now making movies, Docs and Livin' La Vida Loca. Meanwhile Main Street is dying.
I am a Democratic Liberal Socialist and 74. I don't care about Identity politics or culture wars or MAGA or tRump. They all have to go if we are to survive.
The scenario will be the same. Dodge the questions and responsibility. Rearrange all his friends in the C-suite and move this CEO here, bring this VP over here and lay off a ton of employees cause someone leaked that report , and escalate the denials till they show they are bouncing back. Same show over and over.
I honestly can’t bear to read articles like this one. No one working in the field of health insurance should be paid a high salary, let alone millions of dollars. It’s obscene! That’s why we need Medicare for all. Get rid of these corporate leaches who make money by denying care to sick people. Health insurance is a human right! Other enlightened countries have free health care cradle to grave. Only the U.S. has health coverage that might well put a healthy person in the grave. We deserve better! We pay enough for the pittance we get!
I think some people overpay for Medicare, especially if they go through some agent. It took me awhile to navigate it, but I get a $70 giveback because I don’t need a drug plan. So I pay around $100 a month. My friend pays around $500 but I don’t think he has done his research. It also depends on your state and even county, which seems ridiculous.
I thought the fee, which I have never had to pay, was set by Congress every year. I just checked Google and there are fees for Part A and Part B, both of which I get. Party’s can cost upwards of $518 but that’s if the subscriber hasn’t paid into the system for a certain amount of time. It would be worthwhile to talk with someone there to figure out what you should do if you are new to it. I pay the $257 for Part B automatically. It’s treated as a deductible you pay every year in January.
I do subscribe to Part D because I take a lot of expensive heart medications. But after my rates were going to increase this year I changed providers so I pay nothing for the coverage.
Sorry I spoke glibly before I checked prices. I try not to do that.
It is Part A that has different prices owing to certain requirements the government sets. But it can cost as little as $218.
If you paid in during working years, then Part A is free and Part B is $185/ month for 2025 says the website. I have Aetna Medicare Advantage Eagle PPO in Lee County Florida and get a $70 giveback because drugs aren’t covered in the plan I chose. I take 5mg Rosuvastatin and CVS only charged me $23.13/ 90 pills with their discount card ($398.99 retail price).
I don’t know who you have talked to about it but it is pretty much free to low-income seniors. Seniors who make money however they do pay a modest fee.
You can go to any doctor anywhere you wish. The provider bills you, with a bill that shows who paid what and how much of the balance you owe.
You may be thinking of Medicare Advantage, which is operated by private health insurance companies, with all the problems of private insurance people commonly encounter. The scandal with United Healthcare is that the board they have that reviews medical procedures had the reviewing doctors looking at procedures outside their training, in which they were rewarded for turning people down, not accepting them or helping them.
Real government run Medicare does not do that. They have always approved my procedures, even really expensive heart operations. I would never ever willingly buy private health insurance. Never!
United Healthcare is universal healthcare at this point. I hardly hear a word about the victims of this behemoth. They need to be broken up and prosecuted
I am a retired 34 year IT professional in the healthcare industries. Insurance, hospital, domestic violence and state departments. One state health department did business with Optum. I had to analyze billing records on their system. It was a nightmare. I never seen such a screwed up system. The Advantage private insurance policies only purpose is to take in as much money as possible for their board and stockholders.
It is not about healthcare, never has been. And just so people are aware in the big beautiful bill is a law to make advantage insurance become the default insurance for any retiree who applies for Medicare.
Yes they warned us about death panels when the ACA was rolled out and here is clearly a company who has a death panel. Deny Deny Deny is their claims departments motto. Republican projection is legend...
According to the Supreme Court, in the 1919 case Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, the only responsibility of a publicly traded company is the fiduciary responsibility to is shareholders. Now I understand that keeping clients happy actually makes the money to return to the shareholders, but there is no legal responsibility to them. I'm surprised that you're surprised.
On the other hand, Sentia is NOT publicly traded and can offer the health insurance service on a cost plus basis. The plus is $10/month the cost is the actual risk, plus stop loss. That's it. That cuts over half from the cost of health insurance. Plus, we are privately owned and have no shareholders.
I work for Aetna, and my blog is also about my insurance company. I’m just a grunt, not a c-suit exec, so I have different experiences. Anyway, just wanted to say thank you. I used your tweet about the exec concert in one of my articles. So thank you for continuing to speak out against these people. We need to really rally so we can hold them accountable for the deaths on their hands.
They say "we care about you" in their advertisements but it's obvious that they care most about shareholder value, which is maximized when they care less about you.
They are not too big to fall.
Force the breakup of their vertical consolidation. Give Optum health’s administration to the doctors and Optum RX administration to the pharmacists.
Regulate the actual insurers so their Medical Loss Ratio(where profit derives) is 10-12% (like European insurance companies)instead of 18% like here.
We have to regulate this industry because they are taking our money and our health.
I worked my whole career toward a single payer system; I don’t want that single payer to be United Health Care!
Barack gave us Obamacare.
Emperor Zero promises us Osamacare, even though he's Bin Laiden to rest! lol.
Single Payer Universal Healthcare for all.
May Mother Nature bless Bernie Sanders, AOC and their Fighting the Oligarchs Tour!
https://bsanders-astro.pages.dev/oligarchy/
Invest the time and gift$ like our lives depend upon it.....because it does!
The only issue I have with Bernie and AOC is that they are making Single Payer into a liberal cause. It's not. Single Payer is agreement between a government and the governed that health care should be provided to the populace. It is a government obligation everywhere in the First world...except the US.
If you ask a conservative Canadian MP, they are incredulous that healthcare could be a liberal issue, and of course they are right.
If Single Payer is only taken up by the hard left, it will be that much harder to get it to occur. Healthcare is an issue for everyone.
Who cares Wayne?
The United States of America is considered to be 249 years old as of 2025.
This is based on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which formally declared the thirteen colonies to be free and independent states.
How much time do we have left?
B.S. and A.O.C. are the only 'game' in town talkin' the talk and WALKIN' the walk.
Obama had all 3 three Houses and failed because he was a Right Leaning Centrist and a Corporatist to boot, who should have known better and probably did, yet didn't want to close off his funnel from the monied interest$, because......wait for it....Capitalism.
By the way, he also walked off with a bundle of $$$ and is now making movies, Docs and Livin' La Vida Loca. Meanwhile Main Street is dying.
I am a Democratic Liberal Socialist and 74. I don't care about Identity politics or culture wars or MAGA or tRump. They all have to go if we are to survive.
Do your part and stop the bashing. Get Active.
The scenario will be the same. Dodge the questions and responsibility. Rearrange all his friends in the C-suite and move this CEO here, bring this VP over here and lay off a ton of employees cause someone leaked that report , and escalate the denials till they show they are bouncing back. Same show over and over.
I honestly can’t bear to read articles like this one. No one working in the field of health insurance should be paid a high salary, let alone millions of dollars. It’s obscene! That’s why we need Medicare for all. Get rid of these corporate leaches who make money by denying care to sick people. Health insurance is a human right! Other enlightened countries have free health care cradle to grave. Only the U.S. has health coverage that might well put a healthy person in the grave. We deserve better! We pay enough for the pittance we get!
You must not be on Medicare. It is expensive. And limited.
I think some people overpay for Medicare, especially if they go through some agent. It took me awhile to navigate it, but I get a $70 giveback because I don’t need a drug plan. So I pay around $100 a month. My friend pays around $500 but I don’t think he has done his research. It also depends on your state and even county, which seems ridiculous.
I thought the fee, which I have never had to pay, was set by Congress every year. I just checked Google and there are fees for Part A and Part B, both of which I get. Party’s can cost upwards of $518 but that’s if the subscriber hasn’t paid into the system for a certain amount of time. It would be worthwhile to talk with someone there to figure out what you should do if you are new to it. I pay the $257 for Part B automatically. It’s treated as a deductible you pay every year in January.
I do subscribe to Part D because I take a lot of expensive heart medications. But after my rates were going to increase this year I changed providers so I pay nothing for the coverage.
Sorry I spoke glibly before I checked prices. I try not to do that.
It is Part A that has different prices owing to certain requirements the government sets. But it can cost as little as $218.
If you paid in during working years, then Part A is free and Part B is $185/ month for 2025 says the website. I have Aetna Medicare Advantage Eagle PPO in Lee County Florida and get a $70 giveback because drugs aren’t covered in the plan I chose. I take 5mg Rosuvastatin and CVS only charged me $23.13/ 90 pills with their discount card ($398.99 retail price).
I don’t know who you have talked to about it but it is pretty much free to low-income seniors. Seniors who make money however they do pay a modest fee.
You can go to any doctor anywhere you wish. The provider bills you, with a bill that shows who paid what and how much of the balance you owe.
You may be thinking of Medicare Advantage, which is operated by private health insurance companies, with all the problems of private insurance people commonly encounter. The scandal with United Healthcare is that the board they have that reviews medical procedures had the reviewing doctors looking at procedures outside their training, in which they were rewarded for turning people down, not accepting them or helping them.
Real government run Medicare does not do that. They have always approved my procedures, even really expensive heart operations. I would never ever willingly buy private health insurance. Never!
I will say it again…healthcare shouldn’t be done for profit…..
United Healthcare is universal healthcare at this point. I hardly hear a word about the victims of this behemoth. They need to be broken up and prosecuted
Fat chance of that happening under the Trump regime.
Everyone gains from the corporatized healthcare system except the people they proport to serve — the patient.
I am a retired 34 year IT professional in the healthcare industries. Insurance, hospital, domestic violence and state departments. One state health department did business with Optum. I had to analyze billing records on their system. It was a nightmare. I never seen such a screwed up system. The Advantage private insurance policies only purpose is to take in as much money as possible for their board and stockholders.
It is not about healthcare, never has been. And just so people are aware in the big beautiful bill is a law to make advantage insurance become the default insurance for any retiree who applies for Medicare.
Yes they warned us about death panels when the ACA was rolled out and here is clearly a company who has a death panel. Deny Deny Deny is their claims departments motto. Republican projection is legend...
Always projection
This not news. Doctors and patients have known this without the leak
And this, yet again, puts on display the problems with for profit health care/
For profit Healthcare is not insurance. 2 separate things.
According to the Supreme Court, in the 1919 case Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, the only responsibility of a publicly traded company is the fiduciary responsibility to is shareholders. Now I understand that keeping clients happy actually makes the money to return to the shareholders, but there is no legal responsibility to them. I'm surprised that you're surprised.
On the other hand, Sentia is NOT publicly traded and can offer the health insurance service on a cost plus basis. The plus is $10/month the cost is the actual risk, plus stop loss. That's it. That cuts over half from the cost of health insurance. Plus, we are privately owned and have no shareholders.
I work for Aetna, and my blog is also about my insurance company. I’m just a grunt, not a c-suit exec, so I have different experiences. Anyway, just wanted to say thank you. I used your tweet about the exec concert in one of my articles. So thank you for continuing to speak out against these people. We need to really rally so we can hold them accountable for the deaths on their hands.
The whole insurance industry sement is a sham.
They say "we care about you" in their advertisements but it's obvious that they care most about shareholder value, which is maximized when they care less about you.
The whole thing is a sham.
Why even bother working hard, saving and trying to get ahead? In America today, we are all only one serious illness away from losing everything.
It’s the wealth care system.
I reiterate, there's a reason no one from the public was shedding a tear for their former president.