United Health Care:

"United Health Care failed to notify me that I was no longer eligible for insurance under my father's plan. The assholes told him they were sending out a notification "packet" to me. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed that. Now I have to scramble for the lesser evil of BC/BS from my employer, if I'm eligible for that at all. Their last open enrollment period was in January. My UHC insurance expired in... December. Screw you, UHC!"

"United Health Care is probably the worst of the worst out of the big health insurers (who constitute possibly the worst industry in America). They should easily be in the final four. Their CEO received $1.1 BILLION in stock options as compensation (yes, "billion" with a 'b'). Read about it here. This, while they were claiming they needed to retroactively cancel people's coverage and routinely screw providers on payment. It's clear where the "savings" from those shady practices were going."

"I had to vote for UHG. They are the sort of company that gives capitalism a bad name, and Bill McGuire is the poster boy for it all.

He's actually not worth $1.1billion anymore. He had to give back several hundred million dollars to clear up that little stock option backdating problem he ran into.

UHG's new CEO, Stephen Helmsley, really isn't much different. Just that he's sitting on $600million+ instead of $800million.

The latest UHG scandal involves their Ingenix subsidiary. They compile health care cost information used to determine 'reasonable and customary' charges. It's alleged that Ingenix has manipulated data in order to lower payments to doctors and hospitals which, of course, greatly helps the part of UHG that is paying claims."

"They have been systematically screwing healthcare providers out of reimbursement, while also pulling shady practices on policy-holders. We aren't talking about just stingy stuff, but things that are essentially outright fraud in my opinion. I'm not talking about UHC specifically here, but a lot of problems that are common in the health insurance industry. UHC is just a particularly egregious offender and one whose executives are making a killing, quite literally.

And obviously you aren't familiar with the background on retroactive policy cancellations (something that isn't limited to UHC)...this isn't due to the customer letting their coverage "lapse" or not understanding the terms of the policy. It's things like someone getting cancer and your insurer unilaterally deciding they are going to retroactively cancel ALL your coverage because you failed to disclose that you occasionally suffered from seasonal allergies. It specifically targets people that have expensive covered conditions. That isn't an attempt to prevent fraud by patients...that's an attempt to weasel out of responsibility for paying.

There is a laundry list of nasty practices by health insurers that I could go into. These things are just getting more prevalent because of the rising cost of healthcare. It's becoming pretty much a high-stakes gamble whether or not your insurer will actually pay any given medical bill. They are bordering on massive organized criminal organizations. "

"I HATE United Health Care. I took my three children in to have their teeth cleaned. Untied DENIED the clam becasue it had been less than six month since the last cleaning. Turns out it had been five months and 29 days since their last cleaning. Had I waited one more day United would have paid the claim. When I complained I was told by several reps that I was SOL. JERKS!!!"

"Read this

(The above link is about a case involving WellPoint, where they cancelled a woman's coverage after she got breast cancer because of undisclosed minor preexisting conditions that were totally unrelated to the cancer). I agree that insurers should have some remedy if the pre-existing condition that was not disclosed is directly relevant to a condition for which a claim is being made. But what they are doing is basically auditing accounts of people who get diseases that will cost a lot of money, and trying to find ANY pretext to cancel their policy (by comparing their medical records to what the patient put on the disclosure form). The link above says that during a lawsuit employees testified that it was policy to do this to people who made expensive claims, and that it didn't matter whether it was a willful non-disclosure or not.

If the insurers are so concerned about catching fraud, why don't they just perform the records audit themselves before issuing insurance and collecting any premiums? It seems to me that they want to just collect premiums from people who pay on the grounds that they will be covered, and then not pay out when something actually does happen. I'm glad insurers are getting sued (and laws are being changed) over this practice. "

"For a concrete example of UHG's most recent problems, try this:

Cuomo Announces Industry-Wide Investigation Into Health Ins...

The gist of the complaint:

Under the United insurers' health plans, members pay a higher premium for the right to use out-of-network doctors. In exchange, the insurers promise to cover up to 80% of either the doctor's full bill or of the "reasonable and customary" rate depending upon which is cheaper.

The Attorney General's investigation found that by distorting the "reasonable and customary" rate, the United insurers were able to keep their reimbursements artificially low and force patients to absorb a higher share of the costs.

Cuomo's investigation also found a clear example of the scheme: United insurers knew most simple doctor visits cost $200, but claimed to their members the typical rate was only $77. The insurers then applied the contractual reimbursement rate of 80%, covering only $62 for a $200 bill, and leaving the patient to cover the $138 balance."

"UHC specifically is notorious mainly for their obscene executive compensation and for their practices involving their dealings with healthcare providers (though I wouldn't be surprised at all if they are playing the retroactive cancellation games too)."

"United Healthcare denied my mother breast reduction surgery for the last 5 years because they said it was cosmetic. Did I mention she's 5 feet 3 inches and a 34J? And has 15 years of doctor's records about neck and back troubles including muscles randomly tearing?

My parents (who are not rich by any means) finally had to break down and pay the $8,000 out of pocket as my mother needed the surgery.

UHC deserves nothing less than the 7th circle of hell. "

"they cover men's breast reduction surgery... but not women's!"

Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company:

"a company that abuses animals and messes with the food supply"

"the callous disregard for the animals' well-being is just gross neglect"

"poisoning the food supply"

"poisoning the lunches of unsuspecting children. The kids had no idea what they were getting."

"Here is nothing that enrages me more than cruelty to animals, especially those that are harmelss to begin with and have falled sick through mistreatment and neglect. What those workers did to those creatures is evil personified."

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Countrywide vs Clear Channel, Blue Cross Blue Shield vs Sprint, Bank of America vs Monster Cable, US Air vs Microsoft, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Home Depot vs Wellpoint, Wal-Mart vs Citibank, Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

Countrywide:

"Countrywide gets my tick for destroying a lot of lives and homes. As far as i'm concerned, they and Citi should burn in a special place in hell made just for them for taking advantage of the deregulation to go hog wild on the mortgage market like that."

"Countrywide's involvement in the mortgage meltdown cannot be overlooked though we have been with them for a while and never had an issue. Guess there is something to be said for not being a sub-prime borrower trying to live beyond their means though. 30-year fixed and not overextended...not that hard."

"What a bunch of scammy scumbags."

"My only complaints with Countrywide are their unavailability on weekend and their lack of detail on their web site. Sure would be nice to find out things about my HELOC — like due dates."

"Countrywide is such a huge lender that it has obtained bad loans from second rate mortgage companies that had no business being in the business to begin with."

Clear Channel:

"wrecked FM radio"

"Homogenizing radio sucks!"

"Clear Channel is so vile. Every radio station that I've enjoyed before it was bought up by them has gone to right to hell — in terms of crappy music and the ads ads ads ads ads. If it weren't for WEQX, I'd suck it up and subscribe to satellite."

"As for Clear Channel, gosh, there are so many ways you can hate them even aside from what they've done to FM radio. You can hate them for perpetuating the visual blight of billboards across the landscape. You can also hate them for their efforts to dominate the live music venue booking business. They're not quite as unavoidable as Ticketmaster but they're obnoxious enough."

"CC not only wrecked what you hear on the radio, it wrecked it for those of us who work in it. They are the devil. Jocks for that company do a shift live in their home city and then voice track shows that run in smaller markets since CC is to cheap to hire talent. Bastards."

"They win this hands down just for turning FM radio into a wasteland of screaming, obnoxious car dealer ads, annoying DJs, and homogenized music. They are pretty much single-handedly responsible for the fact that I no longer listen to any radio except NPR (they bought out and destroyed the decent local radio I listened to before)."

"Clear Channel ruined radio, making portable music players move to the forefront for personal music. They grew too fast and look at them now, barely scraping by in the face of declining ad bucks and booming satellite radio. They so rightly deserve to fry."

"They've changed the formats of 3 radio stations I used to listen to down here in Atlanta in the 7 years I've been here."

"Clear Channel has contributed majorly to the uglification of the landscape with their garish and innumerable billboards. Even worse, they're the ones behind those #$@%ing video billboards. A pox on their thrice-damned house!

And that's on top of the generic radio they pump out 24/7 across the country. Clear Channel must die! "

"I have XM in the Scion, so I never have to listen to Clear Channel's crap any more."

"clearchannel" is a result of media deregulation back in the mid 80's. they own ALOT of stuff.

i love the list of 'objectionable' songs they told their stations to refrain from playing after 9/11

[en.wikipedia.org]

clearchannel killed broadcast radio.. RIP"

"Clear Channel just DESTROYED the Atlanta radio market by wiping out every single station that had been here for 30+ years and filling the air with generic crap."

"Clear Channel is the worst thing that can happen to any media outlet. They have ruined so many radio and TV stations. Their lips mutter "in the interest of the community" but we all know that's a big pile of BS."

"Clear Channel destroyed the radio."

"Clear Channel should make a ad channel that's interrupted by actual shows at every 15 and 45 of the hour."

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Blue Cross Blue Shield vs Sprint, Bank of America vs Monster Cable, US Air vs Microsoft, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Home Depot vs Wellpoint, Wal-Mart vs Citibank, Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

These things aren't cheap or makeshift, either.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, a furtive crew of workers for L.A. Outdoor Advertising poured a cement foundation next to the Harbor Freeway and anchored a huge metal structure into the wet cement. A few days and roughly $100,000 later, the crew had erected L.A.'s latest illegal billboard atop an equally illegal 10-ton superstructure that can be removed only with a wrecker.

for its crime, L.A. Outdoor was "cited" and "ordered" to take down the illegal billboard "immediately." Five months later, that billboard still looms large. City Hall has caved to outdoor advertisers for so many years that L.A. Outdoor is touting the illegal billboard in a photo array on its Web site — a bleak reminder that billboards run amuck here, and their owners enjoy impunity.

Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor, Vista and others use the legal system as a delaying tactic, filing lawsuit upon lawsuit. City officials so badly fear the wrath of the billboard companies that they resisted giving L.A. Weekly basic, public facts about existing legal and illegal billboards. Plenty of U.S. cities have required the firms to hand over their inventory lists — a necessary step before activists, neighbors and inspectors can ID and dispute illegal billboards. Houston forced its billboard companies to hand over a list. So did Philadelphia and San Francisco. Florida''s Department of Transportation obtained its list — in 1972.

But in Los Angeles, the newspaper had to hire a First Amendment attorney to obtain simple information from quaking workers at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, a taxpayer-funded agency that deals almost exclusively in public data. For months, department spokesman Robert Steinbach refused to talk, behaving as if he were protecting the national security.

"Billboards Gone Wild: 4,000 Illegal Billboards Choke L.A.'s Neighborhoods" [LA Weekly] (Thanks to Elliott!)
(Photo: r_neches)

Here's what our readers said when they nominated these two companies:

Clear Channel:

"they have destroyed so much of this country I love."
"Clear Channel is playing to Madison Avenue, despite lip service to the listener. Hell, did you see that Clear Channel is increasing the number of minutes of advertising on the radio? Why not turn every station into an infomercial. Make the whole CHANNEL an ad!"

Toyota:
Toyota was nominated without anyone specifying why they are wrath-worthy.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING:
Countrywide Home Loans vs Dish Network
Sprint vs Hewlett Packard
Blue Cross Blue Shield vs CNN
Gamestop vs Monster Cable
Bank Of America vs Toys R' Us
Toshiba vs Microsoft
US Airways vs Washington Mutual
American Airlines vs Blockbuster
Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack
Wellpoint vs Charter Cable
Dell vs Home Depot
Sears vs Citibank
Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx
Mattel vs ATT
Capital One vs Video Professor
eBay/Paypal vs COX
Apple vs SallieMae
Diebold Vs Pfizer
MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers
Starbucks vs United Airlines
Exxon vs Crocs
Google Vs Sony
Ticketmaster vs Wachovia
Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association
Comcast vs Menu Foods

PREVIOUSLY: Sony vs Exxon, RIAA vs U-Haul.
NEXT: Verizon vs Walmart

Of all the carriers, Cingular (now part of AT&T) has been the most aggressively averse to upholding contract law in letting its customers leave without penalty, essentially daring their customers to sue them. Really, it was a nice shell game. Cingular bought all AT&T's customers, fired the most unprofitable ones, and now AT&T has bought them back. Handy. Previous Cingular, AT&T posts, posts. — BEN POPKEN

Previously: Halliburton vs News Corp, Exxon vs Time Warner Cable, Comcast vs Sony, Best Buy vs Uhaul, RIAA vs United Airlines.

To ClearChannel VP-Creative Jim Cook's remark that, "It really is to find new uses of radio for advertisers who are continually asking us to demonstrate that our medium can successfully extend brands, can successfully reach the consumer with touchpoints that are new and surprising," our everloving stick-in-the-mud Copyranter responds, "Touchpoints. Nice touch, you marketing lexiconic Douche. The Intel chime and NBC bells are listed among the possible mnemonics. Me, I'm hearing a lot of random, annoying AFLACs in my head right now."

In related news, Consumerist.com introduced one-second vomit bags.

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