This morning, UHC, and the other major health insurers, are down significantly.
Steve
Because they will be reducing denials or because employee security costs will greatly increase?
I’m going with the latter.
From this story in 2023, UHC acquired NaviHealth, developer of an AI model used to determine health care acceptances which is alleged to have a 90% denial rate. (Why bother with AI? You could just flip a coin three times. If it comes up “heads” all three times, you pay, otherwise you deny. Much cheaper.)
Another possible motive:
“Thompson in May was sued for alleged fraud and illegal insider trading. The Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group, CEO Andrew Witty, Executive Chairman Stephen Hemsley and Thompson, alleging the executives schemed to inflate the company’s stock by failing to disclose a US Justice Department antitrust investigation into the company.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/police-race-gunman-responsible-killing-082132649.html
The news reports Thompson’s wife says he was “loving, generous, and talented”
Steve
“deny”, "depose, and “defend”.
A close ally during the foreclosure crisis described some of his cases from his days as a class action and even individual tort lawyer on mesothelioma cases. The end state of the cancer is horrific, with the patients often having their ribs break as the cancer both fills up their chest cavity and greatly constricts their breathing capacity. In one, which I gather was not atypical, the defense attorneys kept deposing him, 10 hours a day, days on end, in his deathbed in the hospital. They were not just trying to catch him in an inconsistency. They were trying to kill him faster via the stress and reduction of sleep so he would not be able to testify in court.
He lived long enough to do so. The spectacle of him being wheeled in, with an oxygen tube and dressed to show his distended upper torso was so appalling to jury that it was not hard to establish that he had been desperately harmed, merely firming up how the defendant was responsible.
Do insurance execs and their lawyers have a special place in h3ll?
Start to comprehend what you read.
It was not a justification.
It was a comment on your evil to 30k dead Americans and their families.
Crickets.
What I said was never a call for violence at all.
We know who wants violence.
The “woke” comment is deep in racism.
No not at.
Human beings are incredibly decent.
When truly paying attention we know right from wrong. The health insurers should only be selling supplemental policies.
Underneath it all we don’t support how we are doing business
Adding
Nyt wsj are reporting a public outpouring of hatred against the insurers. We are both right.
Not just because they are too sick - although that is almost certainly one group of insurance victims. The other group is right in your commentary - you spent more time than the claim was worth. For those with a couple thousand dollars of denied claims, it’s simply not worth hiring an attorney to pursue their claims further than what they can do on their own. And in the mean time, the medical providers are hounding the patient for payment. It becomes financially wiser to just pay the medical provider instead of an attorney.
–Peter
Huh? Honestly, it’s my bad. Sometimes I forget that your not a real person. It would be helpful if you changed your screen name Plutoligarchy Bot.
I’m reminded of Sears Roebuck where many employees who bought the stock when given the opportunity were able to retire on the value of their stock. (Of course that ended as Sears prospects began to slow but for decades they were the steady leader in retail. The Amazon of their day.)
Amazon employees who got the stock early and held it have probably done very well. Profit sharing, 401K plans, and bonuses paid in shares all add up for the long term employees who continue to hold the stock.
Getting rich at it in a large successful company is very possible.
Same thing with people at WalMart. Same thing with people who got in to Tandy (RS parent) in the early 70s and rode the telephone privatization, CB radio fad, and personal computer growth curves, then got out by the mid 80s. For that matter, the people to got in to Iomega early, then got out at the right time.
Steve
It is interesting that the category of this board is “Investment Analysis Clubs” but most of you are hate corporations and rich people.
No more government handouts.
I think that is a bit too strong. Most of us know the businesses we deal with as consumers are out to take advantage of us if they can. We need to be cautious of that and try to be well informed on making the right choices.
As investors I think we hope to identify companies likely to grow their earnings and survive long term. Hate is the wrong word. We respect their success. Few would say they hate Warren Buffett.
I strongly perfer Costco’s ethics but Wall Street hates them.
The screw’m if we can attitude…you make your bed you lay in it.
You earn a reputation in this life.
I don’t hate corporations. Most of my life’s savings are invested in corporations.
I don’t hate rich people, either. Wish I was one of them.
But I do hate greedy corporations and greedy people.
Government handouts? You mean like government handouts in the form of lower taxes for multi-billionaires?
Good idea. Cut ALL tax deductions–because they contradict your “no handouts” rule. Corporations are people–per the courts. So, no more corporate tax anything. All gone. All income/expenses flows down to the shareholders–who pay personal income taxes on ALL their income. This eliminates “duplicate taxation” on the same income–so you LOVE it. What is NOT to love? A TAX CUT. A significant one at that. Remember: Corporations can no longer buy other businesses because that would be slavery AND a same-sex marriage. Nor can a business ever be eliminated because that would be capital murder (of a “person”). Remember: This is merely implementing what you said you wanted. Or are you now having regrets about your choice(s)–stated above?