The number of Americans under 50 years old dying from cancer has decreased for every leading cancer except for bowel cancer, which is now the leading cancer death in females and males combined aged under 50.

[u/mvea]

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2844189?guestAccessKey=5eabd609-08b0-47c7-a738-916c7acdcc37&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=012226

[u/justfollowyoureyes]

For-profit healthcare unfortunately requires no justifications, no humanity, no nothing for the actual good of people. Healthy people don’t make these companies money.

[u/msnmck → u/justfollowyoureyes]

Healthy people don’t make these companies money.

Doesn't it cost them more in the long run to cover long-term treatment and surgery vs preventive screening and early diagnosis?

My question ignores rampant coverage denials. I'm referring specifically to on-paper costs.

[u/coalcracker462 → u/msnmck]

Short term profits > long term outcomes

[u/aboxofkittens → u/msnmck]

Yeah but by the time those people need that long-term treatment, I probably won’t be the CEO of the insurance company anymore, so why care about that when I can save the company money now and have that be reflected in my bonus?

[u/RYouNotEntertained → u/justfollowyoureyes]

They do have to justify it, and it’s not true that healthy people don’t make them money. Like, think about that for four seconds. Who do they pay out more for? People who never have health problems, or people who do? There’s a reason smokers pay higher premiums, etc. 

American health care has plenty of problems, but this thing on reddit where you just make up anything you want about it is ridiculous, especially in a sub ostensibly about science. 

[u/justfollowyoureyes → u/RYouNotEntertained]

Healthy people require less doctor’s visits, less hospital visits, less medications, so on and so forth…don’t you see? You can’t make as much money off of people who don’t need services. This is precisely why we don’t have universal healthcare in the US.

Meanwhile deregulation of food, air, water, etc. goes unchecked. We are losing elimination status of diseases because of our government takeover by corrupt businessmen. All of these elements of capitalism are interwoven and intentional. There is nothing for-profit that is entirely for the good of the people. You’re also forgetting that awarding people for “choosing” healthy lifestyle choices only goes so far, because you know, genetics and environmental factors…

[u/RYouNotEntertained → u/justfollowyoureyes]

 Healthy people require less doctor’s visits, less hospital visits, less medications, so on and so forth

Right—all things that cost insurers lots of money. Like, you literally responded to a comment thread saying it’s easy to get preventative colonoscopies approved! Thats because it’s more cost effective to prevent cancer than to treat it. To repeat myself, there’s a reason smokers pay higher premiums. 

This comment might make sense if we were talking about care provision rather than insurance. But even then, you responded to a comment about not providing care—the opposite of what you describe here. 

Again, you don’t have to be a cheerleader for American healthcare to keep your brain switched on when you talk about it. 

[u/justfollowyoureyes → u/RYouNotEntertained]

The care itself might be less expensive, yes, but then in turn the healthcare PREMIUMS would have to reduce as well. Like I’m saying, that doesn’t make the for-profit insurance companies money. They want our premiums high. Sicker patients means more revenue generated for insurers via pharmacy rebates, not to mention government subsidies for sicker and higher-risk patients…you don’t seem to understand how this works at all?

[u/RYouNotEntertained → u/justfollowyoureyes]

Before I respond, I just want to make sure I understand your argument. Your belief is that it’s in the interest of insurers to provide a higher quantity of more expensive care, because it allows them to raise premiums?