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UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
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Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
>People demand justice, whether they're right to is a secondary concern, as is the methodologies they choose to seek it. Some become activists. Some become politicians. Some pick up guns. That is a true, but We should discourage and condemn them picking up guns. There is a feedback loop at play
> That is a true, but We should discourage and condemn them picking up guns. Nonsense. They will and should pick up guns if the entrenched systems no longer serve the purpose of the majority. Sure, it's not ideal. But sometimes it's the only way to enact change. Some of the most important rights we have today were won with violence.
The majority has all the power and the current system is what the majority wants. Being a frustrated minority does not excuse violence.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
There isn't a propaganda machine trying to make Manhattan look dangerous, so I don't think anyone thought this was random.
There's an ongoing "all the big liberal cities are scary" vibe in much media that's been internalized by a large proportion of the population. I know multiple people (and have myself experienced this) who've been greeted with warnings and concern from relatives when traveling to major cities... when those cities have violent crime rates far lower than the places they/we live. Like, a fifth as much or lower. It's stil…
As someone who lived in NYC all the way from the early 80s up until 2 years ago and still has to travel there regularly for business, NYC is a lot closer to how it was in the mid-80s than any other point during that period.
Especially post-9/11 up until COVID it was practically Disneyland. You had little chance of being a victim of random crime in the vast majority of city neighborhoods or on the subway. That's certainly not true anymore. (Caveat: In 2009 I was drive-by shot at on gang initiation night on 96th St & Columbus Ave in Manhattan. Yes, it happened, but place and time are important factors.)
Also we've seen a return of large storefront vacancy numbers in Manhattan.
Where I live now people truly do not lock their doors. Most garage doors in my neighborhood stay open 24/7.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
There isn't a propaganda machine trying to make Manhattan look dangerous, so I don't think anyone thought this was random.
Sure, but there's a lot of speculation that it was a wronged customer. It could have been someone he works with. It could have been someone from his personal life. People who are not Healthcare CEO's also are murdered, there are lots of possible motives. We don't even know that the killer got the right person.
> We don't even know that the killer got the right person.
The rest I agree with but this part we know, right? CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are not randomly gunned down... It 100% could have been anyone that committed this crime but they 100% got the right person...
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's wild that we let insurance companies label government triage as "death panels" while for-profit denial innovation got a free pass.
Indeed, the insurance companies deserve a ton of blame too. They rightly have death panels but use scare tactics to keep people away from gov health insurance that does the same. Still, theyre playing by the rules the gov came up with. Fee for service is a horrible healthcare strategy and insurance is forced into it.
Do HMOs charge themselves fees?
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#216What a dystopian world we live in where oligarchs controlling anti-trust companies deny medical coverage [0]. Am I surprised this happened... [0] https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-i...
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> The US spends over 17% of GDP on healthcare
It doesn't have to be 17%, it can be an arbitrary number because the ones who decide on the nominal pricing are the ones who make money on them being extremely high. These same procedures can in some cases cost even 2-3 orders of magnitude less - and not in another country but in the same hospital but with a patient willing to pay in cash.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That is a true, but We should discourage and condemn them picking up guns. Nonsense. They will and should pick up guns if the entrenched systems no longer serve the purpose of the majority. Sure, it's not ideal. But sometimes it's the only way to enact change. Some of the most important rights we have today were won with violence.
The majority has all the power and the current system is what the majority wants. Being a frustrated minority does not excuse violence.
That's untrue on its face. For instance, killing a guy is a way to use power.
It's not one we like, but nonetheless.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#218I would expect spending on executive security to increase a lot.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
The primary reason for the cost difference is the massive network of middlemen injected into the system, and rampant profiteering by for-profit healthcare companies. Average cost of 1 vial of insulin in France: $9.08 Average cost of 1 vial of insulin in the US: $98.70 HDThoreaun: huffing some libertarian shit "The people are using too much insulin." https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2021/the-astronomical-pri... http…
It’s not middlemen. The middlemen (managed care organizations, aka health insurance companies) earn low single digit profit margins. In the US healthcare chain, the ranking of profit margins goes (and this is public info from public financials): Pharmaceutical companies Healthcare software companies (based on other software company margins) Healthcare providers (doctor groups) Hospitals (HCA, tenet, etc) Managed care…
I think you left out several layers. At least one of which in the news lately is the PBM, which sit between hospitals/providers and pharmaceutical companies, and are able to exert monopoly power on that market. They have agreements with hospitals that hospitals are only allowed to purchase through them, and then their suppliers are permitted to purchase exclusive access. This results in things like the saline shortage last year, and pushing small local pharmacies out of business. The PBMs also have incredible profit margins, upwards of 80%.
Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are called silencers. It's the number one definition for the word in my dictionary.
Gun owners don't call them silencers. Movies call them silencers and non gun owners watch movies so that word has entered the lexicon. But it's extremely incorrect-- suppressors don't silence guns. Suppressed firearms are still loud.
> Gun owners don't call them silencers.
In the US where there are around 100 million gun owners, you can't say much about the group collectively other than they own at least one gun.
Lots of gun owners (including me) call them silencers.