It's worse than we think.

On our side, it's almost impossible to sort out the ever-changing rules, restrictions, and charges. Wendell Potter knows what they're up to and why.

We’ve posted before, here and here, about the huge problems at UnitedHealth Group, the largest healthcare company in the world—likely way too big. The murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare last fall unveiled issues that started a rapid escalation of stories and collapsed stock, with United’s stock now valued at a third of what it was last fall. But United is hardly alone; the issues are much wider. It’s time for a deeper dive into the turmoil we feel on the consumer side; as always, we defer to experts.

Wendell Potter is on Substack as Health Care un-covered. Potter is a former reporter, Congressional correspondent, PR exec, author, and—importantly for this discussion—"insurance industry flack and corporate turncoat.” His books include Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans and Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

Potter also leads two health care reform advocacy nonprofits: the Center for Health and Democracy and Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation, and last week, he testified before a Senate committee on United. Here’s a sample of Potter’s posts that map out changes that can slip under the radar at general media, along with more detail on United’s issues.

• When profit rules: The Fundamental Problem at the Heart of American Health Insurance.

• CVS Is Pulling the Plug on ACA Coverage — And 1 Million Americans Will Pay the Price.

• CMS is Trying to Expand Prior Authorization in Traditional Medicare Even Though All Data Points Say That’s a Bad Idea.

• Republicans Are Turning on Medicare Advantage.¹

• From Nonprofit Blues to Wall Street Blues: Elevance's Stock Points Down:

• How Insurers Hacked the Doctor-Patient Relationship.

Watch a 6 minute minidocumentary on how start-up Claimable forced Aetna to cover life-altering care they’d previously repeatedly denied.

UnitedHealth

Potter covers UnitedHealth extensively. See his Substack for more; here’s a taste:

• Today: Inside the Mid-Year Panic at UnitedHealth.

• Potter’s presentation last week to the Senate HELP² Committee: Sunlight Report on UnitedHealth Group.

  • Sunlight Report: 5 Things to Know. (video)

  • UnitedHealth Has 2,694 Subsidiaries and Affiliates. Is It Too Big to Manage?

• July: DOJ Questions UnitedHealth Doctors Re: Medicare Advantage Upcoding.

• July: UnitedHealth Applies Legal Presssure to Try to Quiet Critics. (Click for The Times article.)

• June: The Leak UnitedHealth Didn’t Want Us to See.

• May: UnitedHealth Group’s Fight for Survival.

1. These (Congress) would be the same people who have scrambled all year to buy up UnitedHealth stock each time the stock price fell. Which begs the question of what they know.

2. Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of the US Senate.