It's a really fun idea but either the implementation would be basically infeasible for the reasons lobbying is so hard to ban now, or it'd become part of the culture war and suddenly you'd see companies getting canceled sponsoring Republicans to drum up extra support or whatever.
@@LunaLilyEnnuione problem is the world has become so complex is often corporations are teaching lawmakers their industry. They don’t tend to typically have a lot of understanding as to what the given industry or topic is about. Hence why we have people on video voting on abortion access who didn’t understand that you can’t swallow a camera to check on an embryo because the mouth leads to the stomach and an embryo grows in the uterus and those aren’t the same and you can’t swallow something and have it go into a uterus. People making laws on women’s healthcare and they don’t even have the most basics of understanding let alone the vast complexity often around abortion.
A healthcare manager getting punished for his crimes even as slightly as by a slap on the wrist? Sir, that's not how the medical system works! He would have gotten his "doing evil deeds"-bonus!
Without Jimothy, the ceo would not have even received that slap on the wrist. The healthcare system needs serious overhsuling and lobbyists need to be banned from peddling influence
@@dr.floridamanphd corporations are not people and shouldn't have any rights similar to US citizens. Also doesn't help that we're making the government pay to play.
@@dr.floridamanphd Corporations are not people; the first amendment doesn't necessarily apply. Also, bribery is not protected speech and restricting lobbying by accurately describing certain practices as bribery wouldn't be a restriction of free speech; it would be a necessary reform to ensure that people have MORE political freedoms in this country. It's sad to see that corporations have successfully twisted the meaning of what free speech is about to ruin our institutions. Don't let them get away with it
@@georgeprimoff3744 Corporations aren’t people? Well, let me direct you to Citizens United v FEC in 2010. You can also look up Dartmouth College v Woodward from 1819. Private corporations have constitutional rights under the Contracts Clause, Commerce Clause, First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. While they don’t enjoy all the privileges and immunities we as private citizens do, saying they don’t have any rights at all because they’re not people is just ignorance of constitutional law. And if you can prove that our Congressmen are being bribed then go present your evidence to a federal prosecutor and have them tried.
That's unrealistic. Jimothy would have received a stock letter thanking him for his opinion, this issue is important to the congressman, blah didily doo.
I am a healthcare provider who has had to curtail my United Healthcare patients since they precipitously stopped paying for total patient services. I just couldn’t continue to work for free yet they made billions of dollars last year. Had patients call themselves to complain, was put on a three way call with patients, myself and United Healthcare only to be “disconnected”. Ultimately it is the patients who suffer at the expense of greed. So sad. The healthcare system is definitely broken as I went into medicine to help patients.
I continued to see my existing United Healthcare patients as it was the right thing to do. As I solo private practitioner I could not absorb the financial losses it would cost me to do a full work up for a patient problem and get the right answers. My biller spent several hours on the phone with United Healthcare and I wrote several letters. They just stopped paying for services abruptly. I was the last physician in the area who stopped taking new United Healthcare patients because I didn’t want patients to suffer but alas there was nothing I could do.
@@lindagrazianosouthjerseyal9912 It's costing patients too... I am in the middle of major dentistry and as soon as I am done I can go to a cheaper monthly plan (I pay almost $70. a month right now). I am sorry you have to accrue extra costs, you sound very responsible. TY.
@@distorted_heavy If there is no hope of doing it through legal avenues, then all that remains is off-roading. From what I can tell, the populous is itching for some muddin'. I desperately hope that things can be resolved without ATVs.
Yes, we all know that they can actually get shit done when they want to. Pretty quick at that! So fast that there wasn't enough time to read and distribute information to the general public as a whole. What incentive do lawmakers have to fix the healthcare in any capacity? Forget about in general. What's that? You say that "lawmakers shouldn't be driven by any incentives beyond pleasing their voters". You're absolutely correct. That's not the world we live in though.
@@Confron7a7ion7 Give elected officials the most average insurance anyone in the country can buy, and watch how fast the average person's access to healthcare improves...
@@adrianhenleah but you forget--this is a "for me but not thee" business I mean govt. Heaven forbid congress ever even comes close to living like a average person--the entire economy and world would collapse then!
They had a second cyberattack from likely the same hackers. Who woulda thunk that paying a ransomware hacker $22,000,000 would lead to a follow-up cyber attack. Nice precedent that they are setting for all of healthcare.
The kicker is that they people they paid the ransom to then fled with the money, leaving the hacker with the data with nothing. Yeah, the people who write the ransomware pay hackers a cut of the take is the business model and for $22m they just rugpulled. They guy who hacked and stole that data got nothing even though the ransom was paid.
Sad, but true. From a physician who had to continue with Kaiser Healthcare of California for a full year after completing residency and moving to West Virginia to work for a company that used UniterHealth(DON'T)Care. I was refused coverage for a year because of a pre-existing condition and had to continue on COBRA. The nearest Kaiser facility was about 3 hours away in Pittsburg. This was in 1995.
I was hoping there was news I missed. But literally, this is how it worked when I contacted my state legislators. Good news is, I got a check for $7.90 for 6 weeks of care for 2 medica patients, so my advocacy must have been effective.
United Healthcare has a subsidiary called US Health Advisors which sells their insurance policies to people who they know are looking for health insurance via data brokers. I know because I attended an interview with them. Before the interview itself, the interviewees were given effectively a TED talk by the location's manager. He talked about the insanely good compensation but the equally crazy work culture, with basically every employee working over sixty hours, that you are out if you miss a single target, and that you should come into work if your stomach hurts. In t he interview itself, I was asked if I had any outside commitments like a wife and kids.
@@meganofsherwood3665 Because we sit around on the internet insulting eachother over the actions of some of the most disgusting individuals in the facis of humanity that even hitler would look down upon
I dont mean to mess with the Glaucomflecken Cinematic Universe, but it would be awesome if there was a biomedical engineer character in the hospital. Having to explain to doctors (bigger brains than me) how to use computers in the simplest words possible is a pretty crazy experience. It kinda feels like being TMike sometimes too with how many different machines, programming languages, and manufacturing techniques I need to learn.
@@jacobthiessen7027 Or things like thermometers and other such items connected to the system that always need IT Network support. Or how about all the different permissions required by some of the transcription software that may depend on which department likes what. The systems end that is. Just listening to my spouse talking to managers on any given day, um...yeah
I agree- it would be cool to see some of the more supporting hospital roles make appearances~ I am a sterile processing tech, and so many folks don't know what we are or that we exist.
Funny and depressing at the same time. That slap on the wrist was far more painful than what usually happens to health care companies. Gotta start somewhere, I guess...
I was having trouble paying my insurance bill so I switched to Meridian. BIG mistake. They cut off my pregabalin, a very effective medication for fibromyalgia, and told me I need to guinea pig test my way through alternatives before they'll pay for it. I am going in to see my doctor in two days after months of having fatigue so bad my lungs would refuse to inflate for 10 seconds at a time. The fatigue is so intense it triggers seizures, sometimes four a day, completely negating my seizure medication. All because I switched insurance. So the moment I saw "united healthcare gets punished" I HAD TO CLICK.
So sorry this happened to you. Insurances do not care about patients’ welfare. It’s all about money and I speak as a healthcare provider who continues to fight for patients.
How do you make corporations not own them. They’re the only ones who can pay for campaign fees unless you’re good with Trump running healthcare. Eh, what am I saying? I’m sure he’d do fine🤣
@@Hoshimaru57 12 year old kids using trump like he's some scary boogie man to avoid answering the issue. This isn't a one sided issue, this is a systematic problem.
@Hoshimaru57 Yeah, because it's not like we pay taxes for that kind of thing. It's not like we can give politicians a set budget and make paying them illegal. That would be work.🙃
Jimothy, I believe the congresswoman would like her whiteboard so we can get this hearing restarted… Oh and popcorn for the gallery please, lots of it!
Going to miss her so much in the House. Really wish she hadn't run for Feinstein's seat, even though she would be an awesome senator. But she was outspent by the competition in her own party.
Imagine if our government was for the people and by the people instead of for the corporations. Imagine if we had public servants instead of politicians.
I’m a family medicine doc in private practice. I have one practice partner and combined we are well over 150k in claims for which we have not been reimbursed. For a private practice with two doctors, 4 nurses, and 2 front desk staff we are feeling the effects of this. Not going under but definitely feeling the effects. We will not stop seeing any patients and continue to bill as usual hoping things get ironed out and payments resume. The longer I am in practice the more disgusted I get with healthcare and insurance.
I currently live in Phoenix, AZ, and haven't been able to find a primary care physician who has been accepting new patients for the last 15 years. Not a single doctor group with 100 miles. Especially as my employers all used UH. I found one large doctor group a few miles from my home that were accepting new patients, but only if I was on AHCCCS (federal government paid insurance). Why? The feds pay more and they pay on time.
News flash! The reason you can’t find any doctors to take new United Healthcare patients is because they stop paying doctors for total services rendered. Seems to be a recurring theme only for United. Patients need to complain more but unfortunately as an employee you often have little options as to what you get.
This pretty much goes for any Congressional hearing on any issue. I've learned a lot from watching hearings, so there's that. But what I've learned the most is that consequences will NOT occur.
It truly is sad just how much power insurance companies (and corporations in general) have. They are never held accountable by those in Congress despite how much damage they've done to other businesses, practices, and hard working individuals. Money drives everything, and we can thank the practice of lobbying groups and their influence on Congress for the "slap on the wrist" that most corporations get. The punishment they receive is orders of magnitude smaller than the damage they do. Sad!
A lot of the problems in politics could be solved by changing how campaign funds are financed. I think all politicians/campaigners should be given a fixed amount of public money for the next election cycle, and ideally, campaigning should be restricted to a certain period of time (let's say a month) before the relevant election. This way every politician is given the same resources from the same source, and can't spend half the year campaigning and fundraising instead of doing their jobs. The current system of private donations has too many opportunities for corruption. Allocating a bit of taxpayer money to fund campaigns to prevent politicians from begging for corporate handouts feels like a good use of public money to me.
Tax payers should not be funding politicians they do not want to support. The bigger problem is dark money. Democrat donors in order to skirt campaign laws buy pre paid credit cards send them to their supporters who in turn use the credit card to donate to the politician. That is just one example how radical donors like Soros funnel money.
Aww! I stopped paying attention to the news (been much happier and I still vote in every election and donate) and I had no context for the title. Seems I've developed some naivete and thought they actually got punished. I guess wishful thinking and just not paying attention to continued late stage capitalism and the tragedy of The American Dream during and for years after FDR it seemed like there could be a government that protected it's people and fostered a middle class. All torn down. Super depressing can't imagine how it could be fixed. Bernie was my last hope (he probably would have failed but he has fire) I think he could have pushed us into a more secure position before Big Data and AI allow even more consolidation and stronger manipulation. Great video btw love your portrayals of each of the doctors really fun. The United stuff is great too, like Jon Stewart or Jon Oliver. The gallows' humor brings the noose to the forefront.
A congressional hearing is a scolding with extra pomp and circumstance. An actual slap on the wrist is far beyond the authority of congress to do in these situations. Judicial hearings are for determining guilt and assigning punishment. Congressional hearings are for scoldings* and looking important while scolding someone so you can send the video out on emails to donors. When someone is looking to pound a nail, they don't pull out a screwdriver, and if you do, you can bet they don't have any intention of actually getting any work done. *Obviously, congressional hearings can be used to impeach government officials, so if you see one of those happening, it might not be just for show and there may be real consequences. Or it might be all for show. It's still congress, after all.
United Healthcare/Optum is the contracted middleman insurance company for the VA in the East coast and parts of Midwest. The likelihood of the US going after their buddies in United Healthcare was always going to be zero. They just like putting on a good show.
Jimminy is sufficiently naïve to not be aware of the envelope exchange before the hearing. Or maybe it was gold ingots, luxury cars, or exotic vacations.
This sounds like something that I was informed about within the past year, a data breach through my healthcare provider. However, no personal or financial info was compromised, just part of my medical record. Nobody lost their business or was refused treatments because of it. So, at least there's that.
All I could think of is a clip from the South Park episode where the president of BP oil makes a "we're sorry" video with sad music and having feel good things (like puppies and flowers) all around him when they cause a massive oil spill.
Me, a pharmacy tech, explaining what a prior authorization is to a patient: "your insurance doesn't want to pay for this. your doctor has to prove why you need it. there's nothing i can do to make this go any faster" them "but I have good insurance!" me: *sighs* "we'll decide how good it is if they actually end up providing the service you're paying them for"
The congressman definitely spends the next election cycle using Jimothy’s story as the reason you should vote for him in every speech. Meanwhile, Jimothy isn’t even from that district…
Listen, a lot of those Congressional folks don't want you looking into their financials too hard. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Poor Jimothy might want to invest in a body guard!
Literally soon as he said, "this cannot go unpunished", I immediately said to myself, "'you're gonna get a slap on the wrist.'" Sure enough, "Hold out your hand." Me: *throws hands up in a 'of course!' manner while rolling my eyes*
To show their appreciation to employees they send out a coaster..yes a drink coaster. Via usps nicely packaged. If you get a pen that says thank you …then that’s their way of saying how much they value you. Can you imagine what you mean to them if you get a candy too ?
Another example of Congressional overkill and threats of micro management as they attempt to regulate complex financial and information systems at the expense of profit making enterprise.
They don't need punishment, they need pumashishment! Vote Puma 2024 (this comment was sponsored by Literal Pumas for Congress LLC, GmBh). Don't paws, let pumas make laws!
