An Important Message from United Healthcare

It’s “I met my deductible” season!

[DGlaucomflecken]

Hello non Americans! This video must be very confusing for you. Let me explain:

Most health insurance plans require you to pay some amount of money (deductible) out of pocket before they start paying for your healthcare. Once you reach your deductible, health care is much more affordable. However, for greed related reasons, the deductible resets on January first, so everybody tries to get as many doctor visits and elective surgeries done before Jan 1st when their insurance deductible resets and they suddenly have to pay out of pocket for everything again.

The CEO does not want people to get health care in December because the insurance company will have to pay for most of it. This is when I remind you that US health insurance companies make about 20 billion in profit every year

[jimverbick]

My son was born the day after Christmas. He came a few weeks early so he could stick it to the insurance company. It's the greatest Christmas present he'll ever give me.

[nancylindsay]

I am so surprised and happy that you can get away with this. Parody is such a powerful concept.

[carlosflar]

Who would you preffer to be operated on by?
a) Bill, but drunk
b) Bill, but he did a 24h shift
c) All of the above, also, anesthesia is out of network

[woshwbdsiashqwed]

I worked in billing department, which also handled prior authorization. We get WAY MORE denied authorizations in the last quarter of the year than any other time in the year. Funny enough that these denials usually are approved quickly in January of next year, when all the patients' deductibles and out-of-pocket get cleared and reset.

[wildcat]

I actually like knocking my deductible out in January. I budget specifically for it, and it leaves the rest of the year open for imaging, injections, and surgeries without having to delay or stagger too much because of costs. But I'm super lucky to have a low deductible plan.

Oh, and once you hit your out of pocket max? Absolutely 100% slam every medical thing you've ever thought about maybe needing into that year. Make your insurance company cry. It's the best gift you can give yourself.

[silversleeper]

We are SO BUSY the last three months of the year because all the people who have met their deductibles and OOPs come in for hearing aids. It’s like Christmas for us too because we get to do the “your out of pocket cost is nothing!” dance with them. I hate having to watch my patients struggle because they can’t afford help. Insurance coverage for hearing aids is the WORST

[Junierox]

Forever grateful to the ENT office who squeezed my daughter in for her ear tube surgery on Dec 31st because we had met the deductible that year. We found out she needed them literal days before that and they scrambled lol

[TheCandyManTeam]

Doctors being drunk all of December isn’t a lie, but what he fails to mention is that they perform better when they can forget how tired and burnt out they are.

[NutmegA]

Terrifyingly accurate. I got a call asking if I wanted to reschedule a procedure for sometime early next year…. For why, UH? For why?

[jarls]

As somebody who just had an emergency with a burst appendix - don't wait until Jan 1st! 9 out of 10 docs recommend you have it right away!

Also this was my bill:

Ambulance to the hospital: $0
ER exam: $0
CT scan: $0
Six day stay in a single bed room, with my own bathroom complete with shower. Also had TV and free Wifi: $0
Emergency operations that lasted 2.5 hours: $0
Countless IV bottles of various anti-biotics: $0
Various other meds: $0
Food three times a day - and an open buffet where I could eat how much - whenever I wanted: $0
As many "gastro surgery dept" special - fresh strawberry and cream (with an egg yolk) smoothies - I wanted: $0

Grand total: $0

Thanks to the Norwegian health care system!

[CR]

Absolutely savaging the insurance industry lately! Please keep it up. It's a light in this dark world!

[justyaknow]

I did have emergency surgery on my burst appendix in December so if the doctor was drunk he did one hell of a job.

[aigledemasyaf]

Used to work for UHC. My contempt for them knows no bounds. I will always love these videos ❤

[diyeana]

Plus, if you hold onto that baby, you might win the January 1st New Year's baby pack, complete with a year of diapers and a lifetime of medical bills!

[schechnera]

I love that you go right after United’s carotid, but what about Aetna? Cigna? Blue Cross/Blue Shield? It’s the holidays! Spread the love!

[Mr.FrostyApple]

Thank you United for this very true and helpful advice.

[whyareyoulookinghere]

Thank you so much united healthcare! I didn't know until now that I would get to drink exorbitantly in December if I became a doctor! I now fully know I wish to go into medicine. I am so glad that once I become a doctor I will simply be able to drink for an entire month and definitely never have to deal with immense bureaucracy that exploits people's desire to do good things for the communities they are in!

[TumblinWeeds]

Glad I read the description 😂 as a Canadian with secondary health insurance from school with no deductible, I was like “that’s awfully nice of him! He wants the coverage to refresh so you won’t need to pay out of pocket!”

[Chironex_Fleckeri]

It's so true I can't even properly laugh. I remember going to a hospital ER once, being in one of the lowest points in my life. The first thing that happened was like $200 was collected from me by someone with a rolling kiosk card scanner that was operated by a very apologetic and depressed looking hospital worker who had the unenviable job of informing ER visitors that they now had a whole new set of problems waiting in the wings for after they were discharged. They were the insurance collectors. Not sure what their real titles are, but that is a job that would be terrible for your mental health. I can imagine. I didn't take that personally, but I thought it was a joke at first when they were asking me all these insurance questions when I was barely conscious.

Like sure bro, here's my insurance card can you read it for me. Oh, I need to sign papers? Oh, and you need a couple hundred dollars from me? Okay, is there anything else I can give you? The deed to my house as collateral? My car title?. Just put it on my tab and I'll cry about it a few weeks later when the invoice comes through the mail.

I got a call from some UHC rep a month later and they were asking a lot of questions that boiled down to: "we noticed you had a bad time. Sorry to hear you almost died. Is there anyone we can possibly hold financially liable aside from a broke peasant such as yourself? Aw, no? Okay, that's too bad. So we aren't going to cover this because it falls under rule XYZ section ABC. Have a great day!"