Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 523 posts

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#421

Post by OutOfHere »

water-data-dude wrote: post #317
prettyStandard wrote: post #7

Just going to go out on a ledge here and guess that a loved one of the shooter died because of some insurance denial.

I’ll just go ahead and drop this link about UnitedHealth’s use of deeply flawed models to deny coverage: https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/ai-with-90-error-rate...

It's a major regulatory failure to allow insurance companies to deny any claims at all of items that have an FDA approved indication. Ideally, the insurance company should not be able to legally deny any FDA approved action that a licensed doctor has prescribed, with no exceptions. Insurance companies are not doctors, and they should not get to play doctor.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#422

Post by cnst »

xnx wrote: post #340

It will always be a challenge to allocate limited healthcare resources. It's an unsettled question why the US accepts such an expensive means (private health insurance) of doing so.

They're limited only because of poor regulations and caps on the market, exclusivity agreements of hospitals, tying of healthcare to jobs etc.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#423

Post by cnst »

sergiotapia wrote: post #283

Just saw video of the shooting on X, the guy was cool as a cucumber. Racking a new round after every shot. Not a hint of desperation, fear or anxiety. He didn't even run off after shooting. https://x.com/Tr00peRR/status/1864376034465890417

I think it's this video, Twitter not showing anything for me, although I'm also not logged in:

https://nypost.com/2024/12/04/us-news/video-shows-gunman-exe...

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#424

Post by OutOfHere »

nameless912 wrote: post #252
toomuchtodo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Trump is an exceptional case who genuinely is feared to democracy itself as risk. The logic doesn't carry over to most other national politicians, although it absolutely can at various local levels.

Besides politicians, corrupt private leaders are at risk.

I am also not convinced that assassinations will make society less stable. At least in the targeting assassin's mind, it's intended to make society more stable by eliminating corruption.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#425

Post by thra1145 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #212
antisthenes wrote: post #205

Earlier 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.

[dead]

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#426

Post by Clubber »

t-writescode wrote: post #419
delecti wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your job dictates your insurance, not you, and most jobs [...] This is answering the question with a very narrow focus on what any one person can do. Sure, when I filled out my job's open enrollment last month, there was no checkbox labeled "Evil Corporation Insurer (y/n)", but there's no inviolable law of nature that requires the US to be this way.

I agree! There's no inviolable law. What there _is_, is too much pain and too many spoons that each and every person needs to manage every day, and most (nearly all) people are unable/unwilling to let even more important things drop. We also have crab mentality in the US, where if one person hopes for, or even gets, something better, they're pulled back down. And we have an efficient, powerful propaganda machine that…

>I love ACA, but I hate Obamacare

To be fair, ACA passed, and here we are. Healthcare companies are making more than they ever did. Have you considered that powerful propaganda machine works both ways?

https://www.axios.com/2024/08/08/insurer-profits-health-care...

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#427

Post by Clubber »

TrackerFF wrote: post #417
thewinnie wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did he reload every shot? Is it self made pistol? My best guess that insurance haven't paid his enough to buy glock17

A bit technical: Automatic and semi-automatic weapons work the way the do because force of the round (recoil) pushes back the bolt carrier, which a spring will then push forward again. Shot is fired, bolt carrier goes back, spring pushes it forward. Subsonic ammunition have less charge than regular ammunition, to reduce the velocity. This also means less recoil. Combined with the spring now being too stiff, the bolt…

He also could have not been using a Nielsen device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_booster#Modern

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#428

Post by aguaviva »

slt2021 wrote: post #410
rich_sasha wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The tone has shifted in a way that people who would have never be considered violent, are out buying weapons. I think that's what happens when people feel a peaceful discussion is going nowhere. The frustration only increases while available non-violent solutions appear to shrink. The Black Panthers, Palestinian terrorism... There's nothing good about it, but I find it entirely unsurprising.

[flagged]

Okay, let's call it "Zionists terrorism against the British Empire".

In fact, we can even top with: "And against the indigineous population of Palestine, of course."

Are you now ready to agree that, since the mid-1960s, some Palestinian resistance groups have also engaged in terrorism?

More to the point: why tailor your own language based on what the other side supposedly thinks or says?

Instead of just getting to the point, and saying what you know to be intellectually honest?

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#429

Post by Teever »

Clubber wrote: post #426
t-writescode wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree! There's no inviolable law. What there _is_, is too much pain and too many spoons that each and every person needs to manage every day, and most (nearly all) people are unable/unwilling to let even more important things drop. We also have crab mentality in the US, where if one person hopes for, or even gets, something better, they're pulled back down. And we have an efficient, powerful propaganda machine that…

>I love ACA, but I hate Obamacare To be fair, ACA passed, and here we are. Healthcare companies are making more than they ever did. Have you considered that powerful propaganda machine works both ways? https://www.axios.com/2024/08/08/insurer-profits-health-care...

Maybe that's because profit obsessed entities who are run by evil people are like the Borg in that they adapt and find ways around obstacles.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#430

Post by salawat »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #212
antisthenes wrote: post #205

Earlier 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.

> Being a frustrated minority does not excuse violence.

-Random Internet comment in response to the colonial uprising and Declaration of Independence, circa 1776

Post reply on HN