14 ms·

'don't buy anthem products, period, for any reason"

spondylosaurus 3y ago
What's crazy is that Anthem is genuinely one of the least-bad insurance giants in America right now. The bar is incredibly fucking low.
- vertis 3y ago
  I'll take the issues with Medicare (Australia) and the NHS (UK), both of which I have dealings with, over US healthcare problems any day of the week. Every healthcare system has issues, but universal healthcare beats the pants off the US system any day of the week.
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    I take resource constrained over purposefully obtuse system. I can understand that people and medicine is expensive and inefficient(compared to farming and factories or tech). But at least these public systems seem to attempt to do stuff. And not be piled with bureaucracy to avoid paying out or increasing the prices.
    - vertis 3y ago
      Indeed. The incentives are all in the wrong place in the American system.
    - p_l 3y ago
      An important metric in efficiency of systems is overhead. For health system, it would be how much money is spent on purposes other than the stated purpose of the system. Private insurance is never going to optimise for that, because low overhead means high utilisation of funds paid in, and low profits. Commonly complained about polish NFZ (which, unlike NHS, operates through contracting to semi-private and private providers), has overhead IIRC of around 1%. I don't have links on hand (maybe someone more recently versed on US insurance can check?), but I heard of common overhead levels in private insurers in USA being in range of 30%, mainly for claim acceptors/adjusters.
      - hyperpape 3y ago
        I believe insurers are required to spend 85% of premiums directly on medical care: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37977842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37977842. (Not saying that's the right number, health care in the US is out of control).
gorbachev 3y ago
These days I am screening potential employers with who they use for their medical insurance plan. There's absolutely no way I'm ever going with United Healthcare Group ever again.
- astura 3y ago
  Problem is, insurance contracts are only for a few years then employers shop around and it's usually cheaper to switch than to renew.
- spondylosaurus 3y ago
  LOL, I had a phone screener three days ago and did the exact same thing. Asked which health plan they offered with the explicit purpose of filtering out UHC. They're the lowest of the low and even doctors hate them. (At least one of mine audibly groaned when I mentioned being on a UHC plan and then he said "Guess there's no point in trying <drug>."

What's crazy is that Anthem is genuinely one of the least-bad insurance giants in America right now. The bar is incredibly fucking low.

vertis 3y ago
I'll take the issues with Medicare (Australia) and the NHS (UK), both of which I have dealings with, over US healthcare problems any day of the week. Every healthcare system has issues, but universal healthcare beats the pants off the US system any day of the week.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  I take resource constrained over purposefully obtuse system. I can understand that people and medicine is expensive and inefficient(compared to farming and factories or tech). But at least these public systems seem to attempt to do stuff. And not be piled with bureaucracy to avoid paying out or increasing the prices.
  - vertis 3y ago
    Indeed. The incentives are all in the wrong place in the American system.
  - p_l 3y ago
    An important metric in efficiency of systems is overhead. For health system, it would be how much money is spent on purposes other than the stated purpose of the system. Private insurance is never going to optimise for that, because low overhead means high utilisation of funds paid in, and low profits. Commonly complained about polish NFZ (which, unlike NHS, operates through contracting to semi-private and private providers), has overhead IIRC of around 1%. I don't have links on hand (maybe someone more recently versed on US insurance can check?), but I heard of common overhead levels in private insurers in USA being in range of 30%, mainly for claim acceptors/adjusters.
    - hyperpape 3y ago
      I believe insurers are required to spend 85% of premiums directly on medical care: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37977842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37977842. (Not saying that's the right number, health care in the US is out of control).

gorbachev 3y ago

These days I am screening potential employers with who they use for their medical insurance plan. There's absolutely no way I'm ever going with United Healthcare Group ever again.

astura 3y ago
Problem is, insurance contracts are only for a few years then employers shop around and it's usually cheaper to switch than to renew.
spondylosaurus 3y ago
LOL, I had a phone screener three days ago and did the exact same thing. Asked which health plan they offered with the explicit purpose of filtering out UHC. They're the lowest of the low and even doctors hate them. (At least one of mine audibly groaned when I mentioned being on a UHC plan and then he said "Guess there's no point in trying <drug>."