> Or to be socially-connected to organizations that the health insurance company doesn't want to piss off.
This is definitely true, and it seems like social media and sites like this or Reddit have the potential to bring this power to many more people. Companies behaving badly stokes online lynch mobs like nothing else, just look any recent stories of Uber on HN or United on Reddit.
The challenge is that these mobs are essentially random, and the public's attention span is short. So if your company does something evil, there's basically a 1% chance that you will face a company-ending event, and a 99% chance that it will never come to light. And even if your company doesn't do something evil, there's still maybe a 0.25% chance that you will face a company-ending event, because online lynch mobs don't really care about facts. So it doesn't act very well as an incentive.
Just look at the recent Monsanto news, where they knew that Roundup causes cancer, sold it anyway, and paid off the EPA to bury the investigation. There've been news stories, but no major social media outrage. Probably we've just been conditioned to expect no better of Monsanto.
The advantage of a real legal system that's accessible to all is that there're procedures for finding out the truth of any accusation, and then if it is true, there's enforcement teeth behind it. (Or used to be, at least; I think many companies are now using the bankruptcy/reorg shield to avoid court judgments.) Mobs are a poor substitute for that.
The other challenge here is that it's hard to vote with your feet in insurance because you might have employer provided insurance that gives a specific company a monopoly, have fewer options for other reasons, or face turning a condition acquired while insured into a pre-existing condition (might be relevant under Trump's attempt at reform).
This is definitely true, and it seems like social media and sites like this or Reddit have the potential to bring this power to many more people. Companies behaving badly stokes online lynch mobs like nothing else, just look any recent stories of Uber on HN or United on Reddit.