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Dad with Stage 4 cancer dies after insurance company said tumor-shrinking treatment was ‘not medically necessary’ (nypost.com)

submitted 5 hours ago by slaacaa@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[–] binarytobis@lemmy.world 51 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I’ll never understand how people were OK with putting middlemen with an interest in denying care between them and lifesaving treatment.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 34 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

because apparently, the alternative is communism, and it will have death panels that will decide if you get to live in order to save costs...

[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 6 points 37 minutes ago (1 children)

Insurance companies are deathpanels though...

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 28 minutes ago

I believe that was their point...

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 18 minutes ago

Insurance is worse than communism in this case.

Tax paid universal healthcare and healthcare insurance both work on the idea of socializing the cost.

The difference is that insurance companies also need to make a profit too feed the owners. Since they don't actually produce anything that can make a profit, the only place they can grab the "profit" is by denying cover.

American healthcare insurance is exactly the same picture that is shown when people try to explain why communism doesn't work.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

The Acquired podcast went over this history very briefly in their Epic episode and it's so crazy how close we were to having universal healthcare.

Tl;dl:

during WW2, wage controls were in place due to a large demand of workers but very few people available due to being in the war
unions and companies alike were looking for ways to make their positions and companies more attractive.
government permitted benefits to augment salaries. Some companies started offering health insurance.
back then going to the doctor was NOT the bankrupt causing thing that is today and was considered a fringe benefit
larger companies were able to offer better incentives due to healthcare benefits
add a few years of corruption and "market forces" and you have the system we have now

So blame wage controls during WW2.

Oh and the Brits were facing similar forces when they were starting to stand up their healthcare system but decided instead to hire people to build a robust system so everyone didn't have to pay anything at the point of sale.

Yeah, it really was that simple.

[–] grranibal@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 hour ago

I prefer to blame the people who take advantage of the sick