This is Round 31 in our Worst Company in America contest, Chase vs United Healthcare. Vote which sucks more, inside…
Here’s what our readers said when they nominated these two companies:
Chase:
“Nothing about their credit cards is good. They are legalized loan sharks.”
“They like to play musical payment-due-dates.”
“raises rates without notice, etc.”
“I got a credit card with them that was supposed to be 0% interest. The first time I carried over a balance they charged me interest. And than I have received no end to the special offers that they offer through their card. They are the most annoying credit card company out there.”
“Their customer service sucks, they abuse their employees and they are one of the big four behind the Payday Loan industry.”
“I’ve been through hell with Chase credit services”
United Health Care:
“Ruining people’s lives and/or killing them”
“Their service is abysmal, and they’re currently being sued for it. They intentionally underpay both medical providers and consumers.”
“All their employees upstairs got to the cafeteria before I did (at 11:55) and bought up all the Chicken Parm Rotellos for lunch. I really wanted one… I had to settle for crappy pizza.”
“Any company in the business of letting people die is a bad one.”
“operate on “screw the customer” as their guiding principle. United Health also offers the additional service of making life miserable for actual health care providers.”
“absolute bottom of the pile insurance company.”
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:
Clear Channel vs Toyota
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
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It looks like UHC will win..er..lose this one. But I have to say…
I have not had any problem at all with UHC and they have covered things I would consider above and beyond the call of duty.
Examples: Massage therapy at chiropractor surprisingly, expensive asthma medication.
I don’t think that people can draw a conclusion based on isolated events. After all, your service with insurance WIDELY VARIES and is mostly based on who happens to be working your claim.
@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O:
I don’t know where you are getting your emperical knowledge, but look somewhere else because what you’re getting is both oversimplified and mostly wrong.
The OECD is a very handy data source for comparing countries when it comes to measures of health. Compare the US with a few of our peer countries: Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Japan.
We spend anywhere from 30%-80% more on healthcare than any of them. Yet, they all outperform us in terms of the basics: overall life expectancy and infant mortality. Likewise, they all outperform the US when it comes to preventing deaths from treatable chronic diseases, like diabetes.
The only measures in which the US excels involve preventing death from acute illnesses, e.g: heart failure or cancer.
Overall, the best you can say about the US is that if you become acutely ill, and have good insurance, you more likely to survive. Otherwise, people in countries with national health insurance on average live longer, healthier lives…at a substantial discount relative to what the typical US citizen pays in taxes, insurance premiums, and out-of-pocket health care costs.
Chase you are the ultra Anti-Christ. My loath for thee is infinite…………….
@chrylis: Absolutely. I WISH I had the option of changing insurance providers, but, unfortunately, UHC is the only one my employer provides. And I’m not married, so I can’t be put on anyone else’s plan. It sucks.
@JiminyChristmas: I said two things: 1) Wait times will be longer, and 2) Quality of care will go down.
None of those statistics reflect anything about waiting time, but wait you will. According to the Fraser Institute, 25% of people undergoing elective surgery in Canada wait more than four months, while that percentage is only 5% in the US.
If you need a coronary bypass, you are five times more likely to get it in the US than in Canada, and eight time more likely than in Britain. The US has the highest percentage of patients getting more than 20 minutes of care from a doctor. That’s all meaningless?
The numbers come from here:
[www.boston.com]
Overall life expectancy has so many extraneous variables that I doubt privatized health care is a critical factor. And people have written ad nauseum about how our infant mortality rates (Second to last in the world? Please.) are consistently miscast.
Who’s oversimplifying here?