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[–] 279 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This would be enough to "radicalize me", but I don't think it's all that radical to be against a system that treats people this way.

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  • [–] 62 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    It isn't. It's inhumane the way these companies are behaving. They're a threat to society and this is humans' instinctual response to eliminating threats.

    We are giving thousands of dollars of our money to a company to insure that our life and health will be taken care of, it should NOT be up to these companies what methods of remedies that a person needs to be kept alive and healthy are "deemed necessary"

    Furthermore; these companies CEO should NEVER be paid more than a average median citizen... full stop. There's no reason an insurance company employee owns a yacht.

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  • [–] 177 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)
    [–] 176 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    I’ll never understand how people were OK with putting middlemen with an interest in denying care between them and lifesaving treatment.

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  • [–] 120 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    because apparently, the alternative is communism, and it will have death panels that will decide if you get to live in order to save costs...

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  • [–] 49 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Insurance companies are deathpanels though...

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  • [–] 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Insurance is worse than communism in this case.

    Tax paid universal healthcare and healthcare insurance both work on the idea of socializing the cost.

    The difference is that insurance companies also need to make a profit too feed the owners. Since they don't actually produce anything that can make a profit, the only place they can grab the "profit" is by denying cover.

    American healthcare insurance is exactly the same picture that is shown when people try to explain why communism doesn't work.

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  • [–] 35 points 3 months ago* (6 children)

    The Acquired podcast went over this history very briefly in their Epic episode and it's so crazy how close we were to having universal healthcare.

    Tl;dl:

    • during WW2, wage controls were in place due to a large demand of workers but very few people available due to being in the war
    • unions and companies alike were looking for ways to make their positions and companies more attractive.
    • government permitted benefits to augment salaries. Some companies started offering health insurance.
    • back then going to the doctor was NOT the bankrupt causing thing that is today and was considered a fringe benefit
    • larger companies were able to offer better incentives due to healthcare benefits
    • add a few years of corruption and "market forces" and you have the system we have now

    So blame wage controls during WW2.

    Oh and the Brits were facing similar forces when they were starting to stand up their healthcare system but decided instead to hire people to build a robust system so everyone didn't have to pay anything at the point of sale.

    Yeah, it really was that simple.

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    [–] 147 points 3 months ago
    [–] 117 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Mangione did nothing wrong.

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  • [–] 107 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Life is not medically necessary

    In fact its a massive risk factor.

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  • [–] 47 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

    I work in EMS. My advice to students and brand new EMTs is always the same: don't freak out when your patient is in cardiac arrest. Those are the easy calls. I have to keep people alive and if someone is crashing in front of me I have to figure out why and what I can try to do to stop it so they don't die. The ones that are already in cardiac arrest aren't getting any more dead, and the only outcomes are that we improve on that or we don't. We can't make them worse. Dead is the most stable condition.

    Edit: That said, one of my favorite things about working in EMS is that I don't have to care about "medically necessary" or insurance companies. If I think my patient needs a treatment and it's in my protocol to give it, I give it. I don't have to ask for an insurance company's approval or get a payment method from my patients, I just get to help people.

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    [–] 85 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    What's ironic is that the big opposition from the GOP to ObamaCare was this ludicrous idea of "Death Panels" weighing human life against budgets.

    And yet, when the panels are a dictatorial insurance algorithm, where is that classic 2009-2010 outrage?

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    [–] 73 points 3 months ago (13 children)

    It's like the trolley problem, except on one track is somebody's beloved father and on the other is some executive's 5th yacht.

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    [–] 73 points 3 months ago

    This is why we need the Mario Party

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  • [–] 72 points 3 months ago* (5 children)

    They kill us through fraud And theft, and are surprised that we celebrated Luigi's deeds. The truth is they will only start to care when more of them start to drop. How many more millions need to die because of this BS before we're ready to bring justice down on their heads as a collective class?

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    [–] 69 points 3 months ago (3 children)
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    [–] 68 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    This is flat out no different than shooting someone in my book.

    This is why people are behind Luigi.

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    [–] [S] 58 points 3 months ago
    [–] 56 points 3 months ago (13 children)

    The family should get back every penny they've paid to that insurance company.

    What the fuck are they paying them for?

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    [–] 55 points 3 months ago (10 children)

    What's the guy gonna do? Sue them? He's dead. Murdered by the capitalist authoritarians.

    The only rightful place for kings is under the blade of a guillotine.

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    [–] 55 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    They're really tryna create another Luigi aren't they?

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    [–] 45 points 3 months ago

    Per KFF, the late Tennant was insured by the Public Employees Insurance Agency of West Virginia, which partners with UnitedHealthcare.

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  • [–] 42 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Whenever an economic argument is invoked to justify for or against doing something, it’s always a vacuous position.

    Economics must be subservient to the needs of the society it exists within.

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    [–] 42 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    He was dying. This would likely have given him more time but not stopped him from dying in the near future. To an insurance company, these results are the same except that the latter case costs them more money.

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  • [–] 74 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    You are also dying in the future. So no treatment for you. It's even cheaper the sooner you die. And since you don't need money after you've died, lets make your last days so expensive that we can extract all the money from you and if possible from the rest of your family. Profit.

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  • [–] 35 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I checked this article and the NBC one linked in the NY Post article, and they didn't name the insurer? What the fuck are they holding water for this shitty company for?

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  • [+] 30 points 3 months ago (4 children)
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    [–] 29 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    And yet it is often by law that people have to have insurance that pays them nothing when the time comes.

    It is nothing short of robbery.

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    [–] 28 points 3 months ago (3 children)
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    [–] 24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    This is how the West develops suicide bombers

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    [–] 24 points 3 months ago

    Time to let Luigi out for a couple of days I think.

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  • [–] 24 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    This is why we have people like luigi

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