Tag: anger
Let Me Tell You Why People Hate Health Insurance Executives

Let Me Tell You Why People Hate Health Insurance Executives

There is no condoning the cold-blooded murder of a UnitedHealth Group executive in predawn Manhattan. Moments after Brian Thompson was shot dead, a torrent of unsympathetic posts flooded social media. I was surprised by both the brazen attack and the unveiled congratulations to a killer. The reasons for the anger, however, I understood very well.

I have my own story. I shared it after the insurer had launched its cruel "Delay Deny Defend" strategy to avoid covering my husband's cancer treatment. Those three words became the title of a 2010 book on the subject, written by Rutgers University law professor Jay Feinman. They may have been the inspiration for the words etched on bullet casings found at the crime scene: "deny," "defend" and "depose."

For years, my husband and I had no serious health issues. We would go to a doctor for annual checkups, and that was it. We were ideal customers for UnitedHealth or any other insurer.

But then my husband was diagnosed with complicated liver cancer. Our plan stipulated that we use doctors in the insurer's network but that if we needed specialized care elsewhere, United Healthcare would cover it. Our network doctor, an expert in liver cancer, told us in no uncertain terms to go to Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Deaconess then offered the cutting-edge treatment my husband needed — and was only a 50-minute drive away.

The doctor obviously anticipated the battle we faced in getting the insurer to cover it. As we walked out of his office, he whispered, "Mortgage the house."

We would have done just that and sued UnitedHealth later had we not fallen victim to the "delay" scheme. The company repeatedly implied that it would seriously consider covering the treatment. To get there, we had to go through an appeal process. That meant speaking to a "handler" who said our case would be reevaluated. About a week later, a one-sentence rejection letter would arrive by snail mail. But it included a number we could call to challenge the verdict. Around we again went.

We could never talk to anyone who made decisions. We couldn't get anyone there to talk to our doctor. At one point, we were told to seek treatment at a now-failing community hospital. The handler told us that the person sending us there was "a nurse" as though that was reassuring.

My husband, an ex-Marine, was a tough customer. He said that dealing with the insurer was worse than dealing with the cancer.

We had fallen into those traps, which Feinman explained, were designed "to wear down claimants" and "flat-out deny" valid claims. Should the policyholder sue, the insurer would unleash a team of lawyers who excelled at swatting away plaintiffs.

Because insurers put the premium payments into investments, delaying payouts also enabled them make more money.

In serious cases, one suspects that delaying tactics are also intended to wait out the life of the patient: The policyholder would die before the insurer had to spend money on medical care. We finally said "the hell with waiting" and went to Deaconess for treatment.

Some months after a grueling round of chemo, my husband died. I'll never know for sure whether the delay hastened that outcome. I do know that the then-CEO of United Healthcare — widely known as William "Dollar Bill" McGuire — later walked off with a $1.1 billion golden parachute after having raked in $500 million.

One last note: Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, would, among other things, let Affordable Care Act insurers discriminate against preexisting conditions. It would deregulate Medicare Advantage plans, which are run by private insurers, and herd more Medicare beneficiaries into them.

You've been warned.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Nebraska’s Lieutenant Governor Resigns After Sister Alleges Threats

Nebraska’s Lieutenant Governor Resigns After Sister Alleges Threats

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

Nebraska’s lieutenant governor announced his resignation Tuesday morning, a day after a state judge ordered him not to contact his sister after she accused him of having anger problems and threatening her.

Lt. Gov. Lavon Heidemann, who was appointed to his office by Gov. Dave Heineman in 2013, was running in the November election to retain his position as part of a joint Republican ticket with gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts.

“This has been a difficult situation, and after much thought, discussion, and prayer, I have decided that for the good of my family, for the office of lieutenant governor, and for the future of Nebraska, I am resigning today from the office of lieutenant governor, as well as withdrawing as running mate for Pete Ricketts,” Heidemann said in a statement.

According to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office, the official deadline for withdrawing from the race passed on Sept. 1. It was not immediately clear how Heidemann’s resignation would affect the election. Ricketts’ campaign website said that he was planning to announce a new running mate on Tuesday afternoon.

Heidemann — who had said Monday that he “disputed much of my sister’s claims” — added in his Tuesday statement that his sister’s allegations against him “are not who I am,” and did not discuss the issue further.

The protection order sought by Heidemann’s sister, Lois L. Bohling of Elk Creek, Nebraska, was granted by Johnson County District Judge Daniel Bryan after a hearing Monday morning, according to local media reports.

Bohling wanted to block Heidemann from contacting her or from visiting their disabled mother, Lola Heidemann, who was widowed when their father died in January 2013.

According to a petition Bohling filed with the court, Bohling and Heidemann have been struggling over how to divide their father’s property since at least October 2013.

In one December incident, Bohling said, “Lavon became VERY angry and his anger was pointed at me. He was shouting at me and at one point raised up, and started to come over the table at me with a furor in his eyes, like a wild man, that scared me to pieces.”

Bohling said she began to avoid her brother after that, but had another run-in with him a few weeks ago, on Aug. 19, at their mother’s home.

Bohling, who said she has been her mother’s primary caregiver during the last five years, said that Heidemann became angry with her after he arrived and she began to talk about their mother’s medical care.

Bohling said Heidemann then charged at her with “hatred” in his eyes, grabbing her arms and “screaming” in her face.

“Now I am not just afraid but terrified of him. I feel scared because there is no way to know when or where he will erupt at me next,” Bohling wrote in her petition for an order of protection.

Heineman, who had appointed Heidemann to office, said in his own statement Tuesday that the lieutenant governor’s resignation was “a sad day for the state of Nebraska,” calling Heidemann an “outstanding public official.”

“Last night, Lavon and his wife met with me in my office at approximately 9:30 p.m. He apologized for what occurred and told me he would be resigning,” Heineman said. “I have said many times that as public officials we are held to a higher standard of conduct and we should be. This is an unfortunate situation, but Lavon is doing what is appropriate by putting his family first and stepping down as lieutenant governor.”

A spokesman for Ricketts, Heidemann’s running mate, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Photo via WikiCommons

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The New Old Obama Fights Back

WASHINGTON — For President Obama, these are the days of never hearing an encouraging word. Not since his own supporters were losing faith in his presidential campaign in the summer of 2007 has Obama confronted so many bad reviews and such widespread frustration and angry criticism from his own side.

Now, the censure is reinforced by terrible tidings from the outside in the form of wildly swinging stock markets, persistent unemployment and divisions in the nation’s capital so deep that they make the period around President Clinton’s impeachment look like an era of good feelings

For Obama’s lieutenants, his comeback from the ’07 summer doldrums provided an over-learned lesson that encouraged them to ignore external criticism and cruise along with complete confidence in their man’s almost magical powers of restoration.

The president’s loyalists still have faith in him and still love to criticize media narratives they think underestimate him. But this time, both he and they are expressing a level of frustration that may be the healthiest thing happening to Obama in what is an otherwise dismal moment in his presidency. A White House crowd often too sure of itself is fully aware of the ferocious fight Obama faces and the seriousness of the problems he confronts. Their mood and past experience suggests that a new Obama — or, in many ways, the old Obama of 2008 — is about to reappear.

The biggest factor is the end of the default threat. Make no mistake: The administration was petrified that conservatives in Congress really would push the country over the cliff in the debt-ceiling fight. GOP leaders may have realized the dangers involved, but Obama worried that if he miscalculated, House Republicans might not muster a majority to prevent the worst from happening.

Obama’s aides say he understood liberal anger over the Republicans’ irresponsibility in using the default threat to strengthen their own bargaining position. But while progressives wanted the White House to call the right wing’s bluff, Obama insisted that this was not a risk a president could take. He preferred to escape this box with the best flawed deal he could get, provided he could take the lethal debt-ceiling weapon out of Republican hands.

Having done so, the White House now sounds liberated. Even a government shutdown would be a day in springtime compared with the economic Armageddon that default might have let loose. Obama has a margin for maneuver and action he didn’t have before.

Then there is Obama’s own character. He is both conflict-averse and highly competitive. On the one hand, he believes his old speech declaring there is neither a red America nor a blue America, and he trusted his own capacity to bring left and right together — an imprudent presumption, given the nature of the current GOP.

Allowing this side of himself a much longer run than seems reasonable is what unleashed all the recent commentary describing him as weak and indecisive. But no sane human being (and sanity is still an Obama hallmark) can pretend anymore that today’s Republicans remain the party of Bob Dole or Howard Baker. The proof came in last week’s Republican presidential debate when every candidate on stage raised a hand to declare unacceptable even a deficit deal involving 10 times as many spending cuts as revenue increases. This provides a handy new definition of extremism: When 90.9091 percent purity is not good enough.

Obama knows he’s reaching the end of the line on negotiating. Now he has to win. This brings out his competitive side. The rules of an election are similar to those of the sporting contests Obama so enjoys. Candidates are expected to be tough, to go after their opponents, to push and shove and throw them off balance. If you doubt Obama can do this, ask Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

The president’s speech last Thursday in Holland, Mich., was the first sign that the competitive Obama is re-emerging. His target, like Harry Truman’s in 1948, was an obstructionist Republican Congress. He condemned “the refusal of some folks in Congress to put the country ahead of party” and urged that it “start passing some bills that we all know will help our economy right now.”

With Obama, there is always the danger of a relapse into the passive, we’re-all-reasonable-people style. The fighting Obama has briefly appeared before, only to go back into hibernation. This time, the evidence suggests he’ll stick with it — and, in truth, he has no other choice.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.

(c) 2011, Washington Post Writers Group

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