Samaritan Health Services made the right and courageous decision to terminate its contract with UnitedHealthcare.
The fear and anger expressed in two letters to the editor published on September 26 were also justified. “Write, complain, contact your reps” (Cindy Owen) and “We don’t have that kind of money” (Ann Bowen).
The authors of these letters are wondering how to find another insurance plan. How will they retain doctors and other health care providers?
Samaritan Health Services did its best to avert this crisis. Still, SHS was dealing with an insatiable monster: UnitedHealth Group. UHG has a decades-long history of fraud and abuse. Read the October 8, 2022 New York Times article, “‘The Cash Monster Had Insatiable Allure:’ How Insurance Companies Abused Billions in Medicare.”
UHG was at the top of the list accused of fraud. UHG controls more than a quarter of the health insurance market. Other insurance companies, including Humana, CVS Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Cigna, behaved similarly badly.
Others are also reading…
Health insurance executives are not evil. If you don’t maximize the company’s profits, you could be sued by the board of directors or even fired. Those executives are simply doing the wrong job.
The United States’ private health insurance system is uniquely complex, confusing, expensive, and inefficient. A simplified universal payment system should replace this. For more information, visit Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates.
