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this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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United Healthcare pulled in $20 BILLION dollars in PROFIT in 2022. The ceo was given $24 million in compensation for that year. Denying claims because of scams? They can afford it.
How was that compensation structured? Was it cash or stock? And how much money would they spend if they didn't act paranoid about false claims? Would that dissolve the 80 billion because it's possible.
Aside from that, did you notice this is a 2 month old post?
About $4 million was non-equity pay. Around $19 million was vested shares. He had a 331 : 1 ratio to the average employee. They can afford to pay people’s urgent medical bills without denying claims. If we are required to have insurance to be able to get BASIC needs met, that insurance better meet those basic needs. It’s especially rough for people with less money and less opportunity. Some people live paycheck to paycheck and their claim being denied means that hospital bill now forces them to choose between rent or food.
I do realize this is a 2 month old thread. There’s like 15 posts in my feed. Normally, I tend to lurk and not comment. Lemmy has a bit of a content drought, and I figured people would be happy with more comments or discussion, even on slightly older threads. If your opinion has changed I’d be happy to discuss that as well.
The point of my stance wasn't to say the world is perfect and nothing should change. Only to try and point out the potential reasons for how things are beyond "they're evil".
And I get that. And I think businesses should be able to make profit. And I think CEOs should make a decent salary. But I don’t think insurance should be handled by companies not affiliated with the government.
The fact is that insurance companies are publicly traded companies. Publicly traded companies have an obligation to shareholders to maximize profit. Maximizing profit isn’t something we want for something as necessary as our health. An individuals health is not a commodity. I’m not saying they are evil personally, but I do think the system is designed to benefit the companies and not the people. Which is not how democracy should work.