from Hacker News

Annual 'winners' for most egregious US healthcare profiteering announced

by hkmaxpro on 1/8/25, 1:48 AM with 103 comments

• by rednafi on 1/8/25, 2:39 AM

  America is a rich country, but the majority of middle-class Americans are poorer than people in the Southeast Asian backwater I’m from. I emigrated to the U.S. in 2022 but left after a year. Life is plenty hard for citizens there, and despite working in tech, I constantly had this fear of needing healthcare in the back of my mind.

  I didn’t want to risk bankruptcy because of an insurance denial, so I left quickly. Aside from the dismal state of transportation, unwalkable cities, and a self-sabotaging healthcare system, I actually kind of enjoyed my time there. Now living in Europe, I’m poorer but happier too.

• by mrbluecoat on 1/8/25, 2:42 AM

  > if we knew about it, then we have to ask: ‘Where are the regulators? Where are the people who should’ve known better?

  Profiting.

• by monksy on 1/8/25, 3:38 AM

  UHG only got #2 .. gotta pump up those numbers.

• by WalterBright on 1/8/25, 6:19 AM

  > Doctors for United have reported pressure to reduce time spent with patients, and make patients seem as sick as possible through aggressive medical coding tactics.

  This is inevitable when government is handing out money. Recipients will always game the bureaucratic rules that specify payouts.

• by s1artibartfast on 1/8/25, 4:46 AM

  Strange list, some of this is flat out crime, not "profiteering". Fly by night companies submitting 2 billion in false Medicare invoices isn't capitalism. It is simple fraud taking advantage of Medicare incompetence. Same for doctors giving giving people chemo for years despite them never actually having cancer.

• by roenxi on 1/8/25, 4:12 AM

  > In a highly competitive year, the top spot went to Steward Health Care, whose CEO, Ralph de la Torre, is accused of prioritizing private-equity profits over patient care. His financial scheming led to bankruptcy...

  This seems inappropriate for an award for "profiteering". I believe that profiteering requires making a profit at some point. What did they want him to do, take the company to bankruptcy faster? And just eyeballing the margins on #2 [0] it looks they don't make that much money either. Those aren't particularly impressive margins. They compare more to Walmart than Google.

  [0] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/UNH/unitedhealth-g...

• by ackbar03 on 1/8/25, 4:22 AM

  What are they trying to do? Put out a hit list?