3 ms·
I was surprised yesterday to discover that this awful "United Healthcare" company which everyone apparently loves to hate was in fact my own health-insurance pr
by marssaxman 2y ago
I was surprised yesterday to discover that this awful "United Healthcare" company which everyone apparently loves to hate was in fact my own health-insurance provider for the last year. I had not noticed, because my employer routinely switches insurance plans, for reasons which presumably make sense somewhere far above my pay grade. (They switched us all to Regence last week. Is that bad? Is that good? I have no idea, and it doesn't matter, because there's nothing I can do about it anyway.)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nradov 2y agoYour assumption is wrong. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) imposed a minimum medical loss ratio on health plans. If they pay out less than that on claims then the excess is refunded to customers. https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/medical-loss-ratio https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/med... Most large employers now have self-funded health plans where they bear most of the financial risk and indirectly pay most of your claims. Thus HR departments have a major incentive to switch carriers to lower costs. Regence probably negotiated lower rates with their network providers. But if you really think it's a scam then you're free to opt out of coverage during open enrollment.
- marssaxman 2y agoI do think that any sufficiently consumer-hostile system becomes morally indistinguishable from a deliberate scam, but that part of my comment was a distraction and I deleted it. Sorry to have left you replying to a ghost.