301–310 of 523 posts
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I don't think anti-capitalist is a useful label in this context. There doesn't have to be a contradiction in being pro-capitalist and also being pro-eat-the-rich. A situation of extreme inequality that is likely to precipitate an eat-the-rich sentiment is probably not an effective example of capitalism at work.
America has much worse inequality than during the French Revolution, just for reference
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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.
I was talking about the power to enact healthcare policy change. I have the power to kick a dog, but that is tangential to the objective of interest. My point is that healthcare reform is obstructed by the fact that everyday American citizens want very different things and cant agree.
Like this is pure speculation right? But I have a strong feeling that, should the person be caught, we'll learn that they have or had a family member or even themselves insured with UHC who has suffered some harm, and that person felt UHC was responsible. Whether they were correct or not is immaterial: the CEO paid the price.
And you can feel whatever you feel about that, like I said, I don't want to live in a world where healthcare CEOs get gunned down in the street. But I also am acutely aware of how abusive insurance companies are, both from reading about those abuses in the news of others, and experiencing a handful of my own, and I also don't want to live in the status quo, where unelected, unaccountable private companies get to decide who lives, who dies, and who goes bankrupt via inscrutable bureaucratic practices.
In my ideal world, accountability would be these rich bastards getting hauled into congress and charged for the abuses their companies inflict on American citizens. But since our system seems unwilling to do that, if the alternative is they get to walk around just a bit scared that someone will [ censored for HN ]? Well, probably won't fix anything, but I'd be a liar if I said I'd lose a wink of sleep over it.
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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…
That doesn't make any sense. Profit margin is meaningless if you are spending billions on a bunch of useless administrative staff pushing paperwork for no reason.
Obviously some of that is necessary, but certainly not nearly all of it. I don't care about a company making 5% on top of a $150k/yr admin salary. I care about the $150k/yr salary which is the true cost added to the system.
Having watched from afar my friends in healthcare who actually provide bedside care vs. the administrative bloat - it's going much like education. Tons of admin staff added that don't ever touch patients that seemingly just get in the way of the folks doing the actual work.
Margin is a meaningless number if you can just pump your expenses to increase the total dollar amount.
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Anecdotally one of my colleagues recently moved from W. Va to the CA and his entire family are constantly fearful for his family because they have been conditioned to think liberal cities (and even CA in general) is a crime-infested cesspit. Like his whole family is praying for him weekly - even many months after the move.
My ex-home red state has double the murder rate of NYC. Not New York State, the city. DOUBLE. The stats where I actually lived were even worse (and I lived in one of the better counties in my area). Nonetheless, always the tedious ritual of warnings and concern when I traveled to any "real" city. Like, guys, save that shit for when I'm coming back . I should be warning you , I'm leaving danger. And please stop watchi…
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Why did he reload every shot? Is it self made pistol? My best guess that insurance haven't paid his enough to buy glock17
not a gun dude, but I read that it is common when using "subsonic rounds" for quieter shots.
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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…
> Go ahead and get rid of MCOs, and at best you will reduce costs by 5%. That’s an objective fact. That doesn't make any sense. Profit margin is meaningless if you are spending billions on a bunch of useless administrative staff pushing paperwork for no reason. Obviously some of that is necessary, but certainly not nearly all of it. I don't care about a company making 5% on top of a $150k/yr admin salary. I care abou…
That doesn’t make any sense. If one MCO were to pump their expenses, there are 4 to 6 others waiting to take their customers with lower premiums.
Currently, medical loss ratios are around 85% to 90%, which means MCO administrative costs are 8% or maybe 10%, at most.
However, getting rid of the MCO doesn’t mean those costs go away. Government employees will have to do the prior authorizations rather than MCO employees. So I split the difference, and you end up with a net savings of 5%. Make it 10% if you want to be super optimistic and think the government will streamline paperwork for healthcare providers.
The other 90% of healthcare costs are still there.
Always seemed pretty strange to me that you can build and oversee an organization widely perceived (whether fairly or not) as evil, host what those evil-perceivers will view as Bad Rich Guy Conference in public, in a country where anyone can get as many guns as they want, and there isn't more violence like this. Seems like an unstable operating point for a society.
So I think most people know that if you come at the king, you are definitely throwing your future away (and Americans, for all the complaining, tend to be comfortable / hopeful enough that they don't want to do that).
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Only a handful of states require a permit to buy a firearm. A suppressor is equally easy to procure, and failing that, can be machined by anyone somewhat competent with a lathe. Won't link to it here, Youtube videos available with a quick web search. https://brilliantmaps.com/buy-gun-map/
That's basically propaganda and half-admits it on the site. There are almost no situations where you will not be buying your firearm from an FFL and you will have to fill out a background check form and have a waiting period. The only private sales that happen are among criminals and within families. Regular people aren't going to risk the kind of charges that stem from misuse after a private sale. Certainly nobody w…
This varies from state-to-state. Some states allow private sale of individual firearms with no background check.
(... I wish I didn't have a reason to know this fact).
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This is the comment that has been in my head since the news broke, and I feel like we are only at the beginning, like the pause before the first drop of a rollercoaster with the forward looking macro (political and economic tension, broadly speaking). Laws and rules only matter so long as we're all willing to believe they do.
I don't know how to write this comment in a way that won't land me in a CIA black site so I'll just start with a disclaimer that this post in no way celebrates or condones any violence, but I wouldn't be surprised if political assassination attempts go up 10-fold in the next 10 years. We already saw two different assassination attempts against Trump during the lead up to the election. You can read my older comments t…
I don't think this ceo should be killed. However it's absolutely the case that this ceo has taken actions that resulted in the deaths and suffering of others. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if someone lost a family member due to this ceo and that turned out to be the motive. I'm nervous about the precedent this sets, if that turns out to be the motive.