# United healthcare CEO assassinated, the P&E edition {This is not a gun debate/statistics thread!}

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [December 5, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195 "2024-12-05T13:02:00Z")\
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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195/325 "2024-12-12T05:52:48Z")

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C’mon, how bad can United Healthcare be? [This website](https://www.valuepenguin.com/health-insurance-claim-denials-and-appeals) (quoted by US News and World Report) uses federal data to calculate denial rates for various US insurance companies. Here they are. I calculate statistical averages and measures of dispersion:

| UnitedHealthcare | 32% |
| --- | --- |
| Medica | 27% |
| Anthem | 23% |
| Aetna | 20% |
| CareSource | 20% |
| Molina | 19% |
| Cigna | 18% |
| BCBS | 17% |
| Ambetter | 14% |
| Oscar Health | 12% |
| Kaiser Permanente | 7% |
| | |
| | |
| mean | 19% |
| median | 19% |
| stdev | 6.9% |

Yup, United Healthcare is the worst. They are 1.7 times worse than the industry average, and _almost_ 2 standard deviations worse than the average for those with some statistical background. That’s… bad. Kaiser Permanente is a large operation. They have a complicated structure where branches are for-profit, while the overarching organization is not-for-profit. Anyway, 7% is a reasonable baseline for quality care: United Healthcare is over four and a half times worse.

The Anthem Blue Cross data is separated out form other Blue Cross data.

JFC.

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