How often do health insurers say no to patients? (2023)

All the time. I have a UnitedHealthcare “platinum” plan, and it may as well not include pharmacy benefits because it never covers anything. Generic thyroid meds went from $2/month with Aetna to $70 with UHC. ADHD meds went from $10 to $300.

The threatened “death panels” we heard about when ACA was being debated are actually employees of insurers who decide what they’re not going to pay for.

I was raised a die-hard capitalist and in many ways still am. When it comes to healthcare these days, I’m somewhere to the left of Marx. What we have now is a failed system. It simply does not work. The turnip has been squeezed and there’s no blood left to wring from it.

1. A properly competitive marketplace 2. Socialized medicine 3. What we have now

I would like to see #1 tried but at this point I’ll gladly accept #2

I just don't think #1 is possible, how can you have a functioning marketplace for a good when the demand is hard to forecast for an individual, almost completely inelastic and often extremely time sensitive. I'd say the US really tried and the incentives just aren't there for a stable system.

When did the U.S. really try?

Isn’t this just a no true Scotsman? The US claims at least to have built a free market solution, and if nobody else has been able to make it work at scale, why isn’t that enough.