I'm sure that some of you heard that a United Healthcare Executive was killed in broad daylight today. If not, here's a link to the developing story.
Being directly in the healthcare industry, I have quite a controversial view on this event. I will preface it by saying that I in no way condone violence against another human being, and I do hope that the gunman is found and punished appropriately. All that said... I don't really feel sympathy for the murdered executive. I'm just kind of numb towards the news.
This sounds kind of evil and cruel, I know. I can't really say that I'm proud of how numb I am to this news.
I would never celebrate someone's death. I find that disgusting, even if it's the death of someone horrible, including criminals convicted of terrible crimes, and I'm certainly not celebrating this. But I lack sympathy. Health insurance companies also lack sympathy for the human beings they hurt. Health insurance companies treat health as a commodity or an asset to be manipulated for their own profit. They remove the humanity from health. They hurt so many people because of the denials, red tape, and pushbacks they give. They make the jobs of physicians harder, and in totality, make healthcare more expensive. They do help some people, but they hurt plenty.
So how can I feel sympathy for the person who is the CEO of such a company that openly and knowingly hurts so many people? Of course, he's hired to make decisions to elevate the company, but these decisions are money-centered, not health-centered. The decisions made by a CEO of such a company are designed and known to hurt people in favor of making larger profit margins. The choice to lead a company as CEO, and to make these decisions, are completely conscious and known. The moral bar is so low that I simply cannot feel bad for someone who knows that their decisions hurt people - and I do hold myself to the same standard, God forbid this ever happens (thus far, my job errors have not been intentional and not severe, but I have consciously made poor decisions with how I treat my family at times - and I take accountability for this and try to fix it).
That's my reasoning for not feeling sympathy for this executive. It's further colored by the fact that I've personally seen how this company's regulations and recent denials have caused strife for people. They're simply middlemen and vampires. I hate insurance companies.
My intention is to eventually open a direct primary care practice. Under this model, patients pay a monthly (or similar) fee for my services, and I provide my services without insurance involvement. This brings more accountability to the patient and to the physician, and eliminates the middlemen; costs for healthcare sometimes become lower than by using insurance companies (where, depending on the plan, patients can still end up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket despite having the insurance plan), and physicians are actually able to practice medicine how they want, rather than how the insurance companies want. This model works best for patients who are generally healthy and willing to take care of their health. Sounds like a win-win to me.