'Out of control': Cancer surgeon claims UnitedHealthcare questioned her mid-procedure - eviltoast

A breast cancer surgeon had to “scrub out mid-surgery” to call a UnitedHealthcare representative because the insurance giant questioned whether the procedure she was in the middle of performing was really necessary.

Dr. Elisabeth Potter posted her story to Instagram this week, and the post has gotten more than 221,000 likes.

Still wearing her scrub cap, Dr. Potter began her video saying, “It’s 2025, and navigating insurance has somehow just gotten worse.”

  • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Medical insurance companies should be forced to also provide life insurance to the same customer.

    Then they have incentive to keep their customers alive.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Idk if it’s only for like 200k and the procedure costs more than that then they have an incentive to kill you

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        38 minutes ago

        I think it’s sick that you can put 250k into your body to heal and that doesn’t increase the value of your body. Idk, makes life insurance that much more ghoulish.

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        6 hours ago

        In the current scenario, they have to pay nothing if they kill you. It’s just pure savings. In the other, they have to pay $200k.

        • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          6 hours ago

          That’s true but it’s a business. Yes they would prefer to pay nothing but if the law passed they had to cover life insurance then they straight up have a number to beat. If it’s gonna cost $200,001 to keep you alive then nope, denied.

          • webadict@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            5 hours ago

            Your logic is true, but what you’re forgetting is that they already have a number to beat, and it’s $0.

            • cashew@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              5 hours ago

              Technically the number is person’s insurance premium over expected natural lifespan. But that number is still going to be lower than medical expenses. Might as well be $0.

    • Hazor@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I like this line of thinking, but I expect they’d just lobby to make the life insurance payout requirements lower than the expected cost of treatment.