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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   27586 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 25, 2025

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Based on the linked article I read, the couple was unsure about going forward with the surgery because it was unclear how much of the bill their insurance would cover. They got surprised with this last minute because their insurance dropped the ball.

None of the problems in this article are described as being caused by the healthcare provider and the author himself seems to think that these problems were at best only tangentially MSK's responsibility, including the following right after his criticism of them:

That said, MSK, like my wife and me, was downstream of UnitedHealthcare’s prior authorization system. The insurance company was the decider here, which puts the responsibility for quick and clear communication primarily on UnitedHealthcare.

Despite this, you spent most of your comment about prices in healthcare talking about doctors and providers. Why? How was this your takeaway from an article which almost entirely blames the insurance company?

I read the article as criticizing both the provider and the insurance company, rightfully. They never once put the blame for "dropping the ball" solely on one party or the other. I don't either. Both parts of the industry need to get over the ridiculous idea that prices don't matter to patients and do better at informing them prior to decisions. It is mostly the gestalt sense that prices don't matter and that there's no point in informing patients that causes both of these players to fail so miserably.

It is unfortunate that the author didn't tell us much more about UHC's perspective on the matter. That might have given some choice quotes to make my point further that they're not getting it, either. But we did get choice quotes from MSK which very clearly and directly make my point.

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