John Oliver’s latest Last Week Tonight does a brilliant job of explaining all that’s wrong with UnitedHealth. Through chilling patient stories and expert reports, Oliver explains UnitedHealth’s insanely high denial rates, its excessive and inappropriate use of prior authorization, its heavy reliance on algorithms to determine how much care patients need, and its focus on maximizing revenue. Oliver shows that UnitedHealth acts with seeming disregard for the health and lives of its enrollees.
Oliver concludes that UnitedHealth “should not be allowed to exist in the form it currently does.” He says that, at worst, it is an “algorithmically driven ruthless arbiter of who lives and who dies.” And, he makes clear that the other big insurers are equally culpable of bad acts.
If we want the health care we need, Oliver urges that we transition away from corporate health insurance to a single-payer system.
This episode is a must watch!
Here’s more from Just Care:
- John Oliver explains why we need Medicare for all
- John Oliver explains Medicare and the dangers of Medicare Advantage
- Beware of debt collectors: John Oliver
- Supplements: John Oliver vs. Dr. Oz
- John Oliver: RFK Jr., a danger to our public health
