Excellent Reads

1574 readers

311 users here now

Are you tired of clickbait and the current state of journalism? This community is meant to remind you that excellent journalism still happens. While not sticking to a specific topic, the focus will be on high-quality articles and discussion around their topics.

Politics is allowed, but should not be the main focus of the community.

Submissions should be articles of medium length or longer. As in, it should take you 5 minutes or more to read it. Article series’ would also qualify.

Please either submit an archive link, or include it in your summary.

Rules:

Common Sense. Civility, etc.
Server rules.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Iliveonsaturdays

[email protected]

AwesomeLowlander

320

I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit. (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/longreads

76 comments fedilink hide all child comments

One story that we couldn’t keep out of the press and that contributed most to my decision to walk away from my career in 2008 involved Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old leukemia patient in California whose scheduled liver transplant was postponed at the last minute when Cigna told her surgeons it wouldn’t pay. Cigna’s medical director, 2,500 miles away from Ms. Sarkisyan, said she was too sick for the procedure. Her family stirred up so much media attention that Cigna relented, but it was too late. She died a few hours after Cigna’s change of heart.

Ms. Sarkisyan’s death affected me personally and deeply. As a father, I couldn’t imagine the depth of despair her parents were facing. I turned in my notice a few weeks later. I could not in good conscience continue being a spokesman for an industry that was making it increasingly difficult for Americans to get often lifesaving care.

One of my last acts before resigning was helping to plan a meeting for investors and Wall Street financial analysts — similar to the one that UnitedHealthcare canceled after Mr. Thompson’s horrific killing. These annual investor days, like the consumerism idea I helped spread, reveal an uncomfortable truth about our health insurance system: that shareholders, not patient outcomes, tend to drive decisions at for-profit health insurance companies.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

hm. yeah. i'm still cool with him being exempted from Claims Adjustment.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We call it playing Mario Party over here

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

oh man i love that

when luigi wins by doing nothing XD

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Your whole argument that every execs deserve to die got disproved as you can not generalize like everyone as part of this group and your response that this Individuum is like the one to get an exception? How does killing executives change anything? In the current system its a post that needs to be filled and in don't think its an outrageous statement to say self-justice and murder shouldn't be used unless they're last resort and its not like a CEO is the owner of a company that can do whatever they want to steer it. Although they have quite a bit of leeway

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Of course killing CEOs like that evil f*** head are matters of last resort. It's long past last resort, many people have already died and many more will because of their actions. When is the last resort if not now?

You asked how killing executives changes anything, but we saw effects the day after that evil f*** face died. Another insurance company was trying to do something really s***** and they walked back their policy because of it. So you can pretend that violence doesn't solve any problem, but only if you, to paraphrase the Onion, ignore all of human history.

I think it's tragic. I really wish that what happened wasn't so good for the lulz. I wish people weren't as evil as that f***** up CEO. But we live in f***** up times.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

Hi, I think you underestimate how much extra effort it takes to read your comment with that excessive level of self censorship.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

all generalizations are false, including this one

it is normal to refine a position over time

technically non-profit organizations have executives too

also hyperbole is a thing that exists - a shortcut to loosely sketch out one's vibe before getting lost in the nitty gritty details. Because we are mortal and do not have perfect recall or perfect communication. My perception of even the color "red" might differ from yours. At some point we all have to either accept that we're working with sloppy and imprecise tools and have to improvise with what we have or just not do anything at all.

you COULD chill. that IS an option. just in case nobody ever informed you.