United Healthcare? United in PREVENTING healthcare! FUCK YOU!!!

[Roland99]

My best friend was forced recently to switch from Anthem to United Healthcare when his employer switched due to a disagreement between Aetna and a local hospital group in Louisville, KY (Norton).

My buddy had been in the middle of several oral surgery procedures. He'd paid (out of his own pocket) for the orthodontic part of things but palate surgery procedures were covered under his old insurance plan.

Enter United Healthcare.

First, he lost the doctor he had before (so much for being able to choose your own doctors!!)

Next, he found that United Healthcare is now denying any further procedures, deeming them to be "cosmetic". Now, keep in mind that he has begun the surgical process and his mouth is a mess!! He has all of four teeth that touch together properly. He has a huge gap in his front teeth. His palate has been altered and isn't in shape yet. He cannot eat anything crunchy, like a taco, without being in pain.

His new doctor suggested he go to his H.R. dept at work and see what they can do. I told him to contact local news channels and call up Sens. McConnell and Bunning and Reps. Yarmuth and Davis and bitch up a storm!


So frustrating to see this happening to a great friend and knowing there's pretty much nothing he can but sit and wonder wtf is going to happen to him and what it's going to end up costing.


And even more disheartening is knowing that he's probably lucky compared to people out there suffering from respiratory failure or cancer that are in a similar but more costly and deadly situation.


This is not right! This is not right at all!!




(Edited to correct the previous insurance company name)

[Horse with no Name]

1. Human resources is his best bet

I had to go to the corporate level of human resources to get my problem fixed but it finally got fixed.
Good luck to your friend. It is always an unpleasant battle.:(
BTW...surely there was some rider that was taken in order to prevent this kind of thing?

[Roland99]

3. I'm unsure of any rider. Not sure what would even exist for that.

Something tells me the company made the switch quickly for reasons that were amenable to the execs.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Most likely

But usually when this is done there is a rider attached to the new policy that states that anything in progress has to be funded (mostly for pregnant women--and usually they don't have to change doctors until AFTER the birth).
It is worth checking into. The insurance company isn't going to give up that information freely.

[Roland99]

9. Thanks. I'll mention that to him.

Cheers.

[dflprincess]

5. He might also try the Insurance Commission or state attorney general

He might even find a private attorney that hates the private insurers enough he'd take this on a contingency basis. We have at least a couple of those in Minnesota who seem to live to go after the insurers when they pull this crap (one is a former state attorney general).

[Horse with no Name]

7. Depends which state

the Insurance Commission in Texas is a joke.

[Ilsa]

14. I tend to agree. They were the ones that switched. The company needs

to pay for the procedure under the same guidelines as they had before. It is unreasonable to expect him to have to cover this.

My husband's company now has a special rider to cover some speech therapy with limits and a high copay for children with autism. I suspect it is self-funded because they love my hubby. You can be injured and get speech therapy, but you can't be born needing it.

[spin]

2. Our insurance system SUCKS and should be replaced by a decent...

and fair system that does not allow profit for the insurance industry.

I actually favor a single payer system, but passing that into law looks hopeless.

[dflprincess]

10. Passing any bill that doesn't protect these parasites doesn't look likey either n/t

[spin]

22. Parasites is what we should start calling insurance companies...

in national TV ads.

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. United Healthcare = the EXXON of the insurance industry.

Only the messes they make are even worse than that whole Valdez thing.

[RKP5637]

8. Another Monopoly, another cancer feeding on America.

[dflprincess]

11. And it's an awful place to work as well

they have a policy of doing periodic layoffs as it subscribes to theory that a workforce that lives in fear will be more efficient. And, the last I heard, the health insurance benefits employees get are pretty crappy.

It also outsources a lot of work to India and a few other countries.

[Roland99]

12. Humana does much the same, but primarily with their contractors

They cut most contractors (specifically, IT) from their HQ in Louisville about every 2 years and slowly bring others in to replace them. I guess they feel it keeps them from falling under the legal "trap" that caught Microsoft re: contractors.

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. Wait a minute.... are you telling me that United Healthcare Insurance

doesn't even provide decent insurance for their OWN employees??

And these are the bastards ghost writing bills for the Baucus Brigade??

[dflprincess]

17. I've been gone from there for 5 years

when I started in 1996 we had pretty good coverage and it actually wasn't too bad a place to work. That was before they brought in Accenture and Anderson and the whole culture changed (when I first started they wanted to be the "employer of choice" and give General Mills a run for being the place everyone in Minneapolis wanted to work.. that changed).

When I left in 2004, the coverage had deteriorated a bit, and rumor had it, was going to get worse in 2005. I've heard, but can't substantiate, that it has gone down hill even more. And those layoffs I mentioned? They always seemed to include a lot of employees over 45 who are, of course, more expensive to insure. One of the people who was laid off when I was was a 50+ year old woman who was out on leave because she had just had a mastectomy and was about to start chemo (she's also Black, I think she may have hit the trifecta - race, age, & disability). I never did hear if she sued, but I certainly hope she did.

[AnnieBW]

15. I've been waiting for 3 days for an MRI approval

I have what is probably a torn meniscus in my right knee. I went to the orthopedist on Friday morning. He was unable to see the damage from the x-rays that he took, so he wanted me to get an MRI. I went to their adjunct MRI facility, which was down the hall. They said that I had to get an approval from my insurance company before they could schedule it. It wouldn't take that long. That was on Friday morning. I'm still waiting for them to approve the stinkin' MRI, so I can get my hurt knee taken care of.

I realize that it's not as bad as people who have been denied chemotherapy, but it's still annoying.

[Horse with no Name]

16. It's a damned good thing there isn't a government bureaucrat holding up your care

:sarcasm:
I hope your knee gets better.
It sucks having one that hurts.

[drm604]

18. Fucking United Fucking Health Fucking Care.

Excuse my french but UHC makes me livid. They are evil. I don't like to use a word like "evil", it sounds almost corny, like something a right winger would say. But this company is evil.

See my post about a relative's experience here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6260485#6260768

See my journal entry about UHC here: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/drm604/49

[Roland99]

19. UHC is a walking, talking death panel but yet the Dems cower to the minority GOP. FUCK the GOP!

A majority of Americans want one.

A majority of doctors (3/4s!!) in a recent survey reported in the New England Journal of Medicine want one.

The Dems have a majority in BOTH Houses of Congress.


FUCK the obstructionists! Fuck the greedy profiteers!

[ecstatic]

20. Ha! I was told to switch jobs to get UHC!

The doc I wanted does not accept BCBS! WTF? And the condescending secretary suggested that I find a new job in order to get UHC, which would cover their outrageous prices.

Honestly, I don't think this is an issue that the public option would fix. I can envision many doctors not even accepting the public option. And even if they did, I can envision not being allowed to go to the more expensive doctors over the lower priced ones. The problem is GREED!

[Dr.Phool]

21. Kick!

The bastards denied payment for my colonoscopy. I had already paid for the anesthesia out of my own pocket.

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and was told to get a c-pap machine that I didn't want in the first place. There was a medical supply store next door to the doctors office, where I could get one. United Healthcareless said, "NO, you have to use this supplier in Kentucky", even though they cost much more for the same thing. They ordered the goddamned thing for me, and then turned down payment.

I'm sending my bill to Senator Bill Nelson. Maybe he can pay it out of some of the campaign cash he got from them.