It's #5 Ticketmaster VS #12 United Healthcare:
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2009 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers, and seeded according to number of nominations. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america Download the bracket here.
]]>In 2005, United Healthcare retroactively canceled my family's health insurance after my wife had two emergency surgeries in a month, one to remove an ovary and fallopian tube, the other to remove her gall bladder. I got a $59,000 bill. Luckily I was able to get some state assistance and settle for much less, but it wiped us out financially and emotionally for a long time.
United Healthcare wins!
]]>Not a tough choice here, really. Don't like the price or the scalping from Ticket Master? JUST STOP BUYING THE DAMN TICKETS!!! They will clean up their act when no is buying. You do not need concert tickets to live.
]]>Otherwise the only candidates would be healthcare, every single time.
]]>Yes, that's very "convient" isn't it? Thank the lord for that convenience fee.
]]>United Healthcare FTW in this case!
]]>Ingenix gathered medical billing data and used it to set 'usual and customary' reimbursement rates. Typically, insurance covers 'usual & customary' charges and if you use a provider that bills over that you pay the difference out of pocket.
Ingenix was accused of systematically and intentionally under-reporting the rates. What this meant was that for every claim UHC paid a smaller share and the policyholder paid an artificially inflated share. It was an enormous scam orchestrated to shift more costs onto policyholders.
The New York AG forced UHC to spin off Ingenix and pay $50million to reestablish the company as an independent non-profit. Shortly afterwards, UHC settled with the AMA for $350million, basically for ripping off doctors.
]]>Yeah, and how much do you pay in taxes there buddy?
Free stuff is always great when you are not the one paying for it.
Socialism FTL.
]]>Vanno users say UnitedHealth (#5886) over TicketMaster (#5791).
]]>@johnva: Funny, thats how much a pair of tickets to a springsteen concert cost through ticketmaster
]]>@alexburrito: I hope you don't have UH insurance. They don't cover cerebral explosions.
]]>i HATE ticketmaster!
]]>Granted, health care is more *important* than concert tickets, but this is not about which company is more important, it's about which comapany screws more people. There ARE alternatives out there to UHC, you don't HAVE to use them (although if your company doesn't offer alternatives you may have to pay "out of pocket" for them. You should be able to OPT OUT of UHC insurance at your work if this is the case and get your own health insurance through a 3rd party (although it will probably cost more) -- but that's your choice.
You don't have that choice with Ticketmaster, they're a monopoly. An unregulated monopoly at that.
Personally, I don't have any contact with UHC, so cannot vote for them.. I have had extensive dealings with TM tho, so they have to get my vote.
]]>OMG - this is the toughest decision I've ever had to make. I can't decide. I can't decide. I can't decide. I can't de ARRRGGHHHHHHHH! My brain exploded.......
]]>I loathe Ticketmaster, but I once worked for UHC. Having seen the beast from the inside, it is more horrifying than you can imagine.
]]>@johnva:
If you don't have United Healthcare and have no issue with them, why would you think they were a worse company than Ticketmaster? Are you saying we should all assume a company is bad because it's a health insurance company? I voted for Ticketmaster because I have experience with them, and it isn't positive. Case closed.
]]>20% of the US economy is currently healthcare. Given that people don't consume it purely in proportion to their income, a middle class person probably has to pay 20-25% of their lifetime income for healthcare (whether in premiums, direct fees, or taxes).
The only way to make the insurance markets sane is to bring that 20% number down.
]]>Ticketmaster just insists on making billions by being a monopoly.
All For-Profit Insurance companies are finalists for worst company always.
]]>@LegoMan322: When ticketmaster screws you you're out 60 bucks, when UHC screws you you're eitehr dead or massively in debt.
]]>http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/new_jersey_officials_wont_say.html
]]>AIG and PCA are the only two contenstants that can give TicketBastard a run for their money...
]]>However, I find myself leaning closer to Ticketmaster for a few reasons:
1) UHC is not representing all private insurers.
2) There are a slew of ins companies worse than UHC, and plenty worse than Ticketmaster (HealthSouth, anyone?)
Most importantly in my mind: UHC is simply one part of a larger, very problematic industry. Ticketmaster is its own industry, and can change the way business is done at the drop of a hat. It often does so just to squeeze more out of customers.
As much as I don't like the line of work UHC execs are in, my "as objective as possible" self still sees TM as marginally worse.
@snowburnt: Technically kind of true, but to be fair, UHC is huge (see: [www.pacificare.com]) and for many people it is their only option. Because of the way private insurance works in this country, most of us don't actually have a choice when it comes to our insurance.. many of us don't even have options when it comes to providers (if we want our care covered, that is).
Also, using Ticketmaster is not life-or-death, as is sometimes the case when using your healthcare.
Just sayin'.. still voting TM, still feeling just a little dirty for doing so.
]]>@richcreamerybutter: What makes you think this is a "free market?" Look up "government subsidy" sometime. In a true "free market" most subsidized industries would fail. I'd love it if the government would subsidize my industry, but we have to compete in the "free market," and could theoretically go bankrupt or fail, with no bailout to save us. Yes, Thomas Friedman, the free market is a lie. The earth isn't flat, it's on a steep angle.
]]>UHC: "Those bastards refused to give my wife cancer treatment and she will die without it!"
I mean Ticketmaster, seriously people? They suck but we're talking tickets for concerts vs. people's lives that are turned into business decisions. no contest.
]]>UH on the other hand, well... they stiffed my dad, badly, on a workers comp claim. Offered a man who had been supporting his family of four on $10K a year (this was in 1995 - not that long ago) due to his injury a settlement of 25k to go away. He took it, and now he's practically crippled thanks to the 'experimental' procedure they did on his back. UH - FTW!!!!
]]>For example, for 2 hours of work I made about $2,000. I sold med sups and simply signed up people for the policies. Med Sups are really a necessary costs if you have Medicare. For the next 6-10 years or more I made from 15-22% of the policy EACH MONTH. So if they paid $100 I made $15-22 just for doing NOTHING. What a deal! This goes on for years, and the actual work involved in helping clients is almost nothing.
Now you tell me that's not a waste of money. After the insurance company gets their portion, how much is left for the patient and the doctors. Only recently I started realizing what a waste.
Well, we chose the system that let's big business care for our health, so that's what we get.
]]>I can't make up my mind: UHC affects your health and can kill you vs. Ticket Master is just as evil, but you can elect to not doing business with them. I can't explain it, but for some reason, I hate Ticket master more.
]]>@failurate: Exactly.
UHC is employer provided, and they decide if I live or die.
TM is event provided, and they decide if I am entertained
I'd rather be bored than dead.
]]>@Zanorfes: Indeed.
]]>I went with Ticketmaster because my company doesnt use United Health :-)
]]>I don't know where the insurance haters are but don't mention the words "convenience fees" near someone that likes live music.
]]>Where are all of the people who sent the e-mails nominating them?
]]>I do agree 100%, but I also feel this way about ALL health insurance companies. Since I simply don't attend Ticketmaster events, I'm going with UHC.
]]>I have UHC and too do not have a problem.
On the other hand I have used Ticketmaster and hate them with a deep seething hatred.
]]>Times like this are when it really sinks in that the vast majority of us are self indulging, conceited jackasses.
]]>TM is a bull-necked SOB of a company that loves to nickle and dime their clients, rivaling the telecoms and their billing tactics.
]]>@Hadoken3: I just cut myself, the thought of that makes me suicidal
]]>Ticketmaster FTW here, clearly.
]]>As a medical biller, I have to go for UH ftw. All health insurers are scam artists, denying good claims in hopes that office staffers are to busy to challenge denials. Unfortunately, this is true in far too many cases (not at my company, though; we pursue denials like {insert appropriate similie here}).
]]>Ticketmaster has no redeeming qualities or virtue whatsoever, and there is no reason for it to be as evil as it is except pure...evil.
]]>Need I remind people about United Healthcare and their $124.8 million/year salary for their CEO?
]]>I went with Ticketmaster..
I closed my eyes and imagined the horror of what would be if TicketMaster were a health Insurance company.
]]>