Saturday, October 31, 2009

UnitedHealthcare's Stephen Hemsley - Enough to Make You Sick



UnitedHealthcare provides my prescription drug coverge. Every year, the number of drugs that they cover shrinks while the premiums go up. They cut off funding for three of my prescriptions this past year. In each case, I had to fight to prove that the prescription was "medically necessary." Isn't that the job of the prescribing physician? Why is an insurance company making my precription drug decisions for me? I can't switch to another insurer because I am grandfathered into UnitedHealthcare's plan for an IBS drug that is expensive and no one else will cover.

Is this what the founding fathers meant when they said "the pursuit of happiness" - gouging your fellow Americans for millions of dollars while they die?

Btw, the $3.2 million that Stephen Hemsley received was reduced from the previous year's salary of $13.2 million because of concerns over excessive executive pay.

Party on!

7 comments:

SER said...

It is apparent they do not care about the amount of money in fines. They will just screw more people out of medication.

These are the type of people, the Stephen Hemslays’ of the world, I would love to see someone put a bullet right through their forehead, then tell them, “go enjoy your money asshole”.

SER said...

Sorry, I really didn’t mean that.

What I wanted to say was someone should stick an ice pic in the back of his neck and through his spine and turn him into a quad. Then let him get bedsores until they eat the skin off his ass and back and he cannot speak to tell anyone he hurts.

And he lives for a long time!

Sassa said...

SER...love your apology! LOL You have to be on top of those prescriptions. I just bought a prescription for 60-day and it cost $88. I said where is my discount? They said the original cost for 1-month is 200. I don't get discount for 60-day just for 30-day or 90-day. I looked it up and it was 200 for 1 month. I guess you yourself have to watch them like a hawk. The $88 is what they will charge me for a 90-day supply. Those little rascals have it in for us.

kkdither said...

It is so disgusting I don't know what to say. I've got United Healthcare too...

We need some form of healthcare reorganization. Drug companies do need to be able to recover and make a profit on the discovery of medications, doctors need to be able to recover their education costs and make a living, but things have gone completely a muck.

Hospitals need to be able to get paid.... reasonably, without padding our bills for the uninsured and poor. Medicaid, medicare pays only one tenth of some of the costs.

We pay the difference in overall higher costs on top of paying for our own insurance, co-pays and other out of pocket expenses.

These huge payouts to CEO's must stop. The same goes for oil companies, financial organizations, you name it.

OrbsCorbs said...

I know we need health care reform. And I'm sure that we'll still need it after whatever we end up with in the debacle currently occurring in Washington.

And I'm not even sure that $3.2M is so out of line in today's world. But $13.2M seems to be. Plus all the other remunerations, bonuses, stock options, insurance, etc., etc. It's just galling.

Recently, a number of employees left banking and investment firms that have received federal bailout money. Most of the people moved to other firms in the same businesses. They did this in anticipation of a government clamp-down on wages and benefits at the firms that have received assistance. Some reporters and bloggers wrote about the "talent drain" that had occurred as a result of government intervention in the private sector.

I can't remember who, but someone else had a different viewpoint: this "talent" brought their respective companies to the brink of financial ruin (and, in some cases, over it), which in turn brought the entire nation, and then the world, to its financial knees. If that is talent, then maybe we need some less "talented" people in charge at our financial institutions.

Toad said...

SER: Your first post (and 2nd for that matter) were RIGHT ON. As for the first one. I think ORB'S know's what you mean, and you had NO Ill intent. I found he to be not nearly as sensitive as one would think? For the second one. GREAT plan.

I can't help but think that when the silly so called "Health Care" package is done being screwed (I'm trying to be nice) with, NOBODY will be happy except the INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Toad said...

ORB'S:

I just sent you a LONG e-mail about IBS. When I sent it to your e-mail address in the system, I got an error message. I suspect you didn't get it. To make a LONG story short. How did you get a good diagnosis? I am having what could be considered similar symptom's.