https://mas.to/@MikeBeas/113666556469008087
EDIT: I think you should get the service you pay for, just so that's clear.
The customers of insurance companies are shareholders.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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That's not what a share holder is
You misunderstand. The service that insurance companies provide is one that is for shareholders. It's a way of allocating and rationing medical care while also keeping business going.
Poor people don't own hospitals. Poor people can't develop medicines and medical equipment. Can't train and hire doctors. That stuff is extremely expensive. The capital class owns that stuff, right?
They aren't just going give it away are they? But they do need a labor force that, though desperate, isn't too sickly that their labor can't be exploited.
The service that health insurers provide to their actual customers, the capital class, is to reallocate the aforementioned expenses back onto workers by way of premiums and limiting care to the bare minimum.
This is why health insurance is tied to employment in America. You (most likely) didn't hire your health insurer and negotiate your insurance contract, your employer did. It's not for you, it's for them, and really, for their owners, who extract the value of your healthy labor from your employer.
And this isn't come an-cap or communist hot take, this is just the economics of how healthcare works in America. You're getting the care, sure, and if you're covered hopefully you're in the road to recovery and won't become insolvent due to medical debts, but this system is not for your benefit. It's not out to save you money. You are at best an afterthought, a concept of a customer. More of a number.
The OOP described is, in different terms, as if health insurer was nothing more than a risk pool cooperative.
Here are the customers of UNH:
They also own the hospital groups, the device makers, and the pharmaceuticals.
Not a fan of the smug liberal aura this post has.
You can point out someone is wrong but still agree with the spirit of what they're saying...
It rarely goes over well, but I do it all the time. And I'm pretty fucking progressive.
Like, if people honestly thinks their insurance took a vow to protect them, it needs to be corrected. They're not saying it shouldn't be changed, but the first step to fixing it is understanding where we're at.
Like this guy has a point they dont have a duty of care, they didnt take an oath, they are a private for profit company with shareholders. They will absolutely take as much as they can, give you as little as they can and be as cunty about it as they can get away with.
Its fucking WRONG but its not surprising.
To be honest, I hadn't interpreted the quoted toot (man I do hate that they are called toots) as trying to educate people on how insurance works. In that light I do agree with what you are saying, people should be aware of how these systems actually work.
Apologies if this post is coming off as overly 'smug liberal'.
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Crowd sourcing heathcare funds and taking bets on who gets sick sounds great but only if it's some capitalist Rube Goldberg Machine. Otherwise that's communism.