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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

#471

This case aside, I think generally in both the US and Canada it has been very safe for politically influential and high net worth individuals. In Russia, things are different: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_deaths_of_notable_R...

Because in US and Canada the "poor" think that the middle class (millionaires at best) is the reason why they're poor.

And the middle class thinks it's the poor taking handouts why they're not richer.

When it's the actual billionaires behind all of it.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Single payer literally meant that all citizens are subscribed to the same government operated health insurance. Correct, but that's a pretty big change from the propaganda you repeated in your previous comment. What you said was, "This was discussed briefly during the Obama healthcare debates, but broadly rejected by left who wanted to eliminate private options." In another now-deleted comment, you also said, "the…

In all fairness, Bernie Sanders did want to eliminate private insurance under his medicare for all proposal. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/health/private-health-ins... Warren and DeBlasio also signaled they would abolish private insurance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaTecufx8Sk

That's just the unclear messaging that the right wing is taking advantage of. I don't have a NYT subscription so I can't see the whole article, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing in that article that mentions actually preventing companies from offering private health insurance--it's just assumed (correctly) that these companies will be operating at a miniscule fraction of their current scale when people can obtain health insurance from a single payer, because few people will pay for private health insurance when there are better, cheaper options.

As I've reiterated repeatedly, this isn't a loss of options. Health insurance companies can still operate and consumers can still pay for private health insurance, they'll simply be competing with a cheaper alternative that doesn't have a perverse incentive to deny care.

I suppose you could make the argument that there will be fewer options because some of these insurance companies will go bankrupt, but that's just capitalism--there's nothing about the current system which guarantees health insurance companies will remain solvent or guarantees a variety of insurance options. In practice there are many places in the U.S. where there's effectively only one health insurance option.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Americans consume too much healthcare"? I'm afraid to guess the logical conclusion to this, but I will counter with "Americans are offered two little preventative healthcare", because in more advanced countries where that is an option, the costs are lower.

The conclusion is that we need to get rid of fee for service so that doctors stop prescribing things that dont work. Getting rid of fee for service also increases the amount of preventative healthcare people receive as providers realize its cheaper to do preventative than massive surgery down the line.

Thank you for clarifying; I had a very different read on your previous comment that was probably the opposite of your intent.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think this is a failure of govt to use capitalism as an effective tool. More competition in the insurer space means non-evil players can afford to manage risk

When the company you work for is the one that decides on and buys your insurance, not you, how does a particular insurance company's "non-evil-ness" factor in?

If we had more insurance companies instead of a few that dominate the market, then your employer would have more choices. More competing insurance cos would lead some to differentiate by having a reputation of honest claim handling while also not being the most expensive option. It would then at least be possible for an employer to choose better insurance companies.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do they still have that many customers if their service was so bad? Do they have an effective monopoly in certain States?

what is this post? are you under the impression that you get to choose your health insurance provider in the US? your job picks for you

The people picking are also human beings who experience the services of said company?

Or are you implying the ‘pickers’ get special gold plated services completely different from regular employees?

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is this post? are you under the impression that you get to choose your health insurance provider in the US? your job picks for you

The people picking are also human beings who experience the services of said company? Or are you implying the ‘pickers’ get special gold plated services completely different from regular employees?

They are monetarily and/or promotionally incentivized to pick a bad, cheaper option for employees. The other employees don't get rewarded for the decision.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#477

This is going to be a boom cycle for the Executive Protection industry.

Will be interesting to see how institutions respond.

Ideal outcome: Meaningful steps to address the healthcare crisis.

Less ideal outcome: Parents whose children were denied coverage are put on a watchlist as potential terror suspects.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#478
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This CEO, in particular, has almost certainly taken actions that resulted in preventable suffering and death. To some degree, that's the nature of running health insurance companies, but if he put profits ahead of patient outcomes, I think we could have a very reasonable discussion on the morality of letting people die at scale vs murder.

The CEO has bosses, and was presumably doing what they wanted him to do.

[flagged]

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single payer literally meant that all citizens are subscribed to the same government operated health insurance. If the entire "single payer" program was completely optional and offered at cost, they totally missed the messaging on that one, because I was paying attention and that wasnt my take away.

> Single payer literally meant that all citizens are subscribed to the same government operated health insurance. Correct, but that's a pretty big change from the propaganda you repeated in your previous comment. What you said was, "This was discussed briefly during the Obama healthcare debates, but broadly rejected by left who wanted to eliminate private options." In another now-deleted comment, you also said, "the…

I havent deleted any comments, you read it in a sibling thread that is still there.

There is a big difference between supplemental insurance and alternative options, and I think you are conflating the two. the first big difference is being able to opt out of the cost of public insurance if you go with something else.

I think that any puclic healthcare should carry the true price tag, and any subsidies for the poor should be subsidized as a separate benefit. Essentially, I am strongly opposed to funding the public healthcare with an income/payroll tax because I dont thinnk there is much incentive to actually tackle prices.

Re: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan

#480
post #422
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.

Privatizing hospitals further would not help the vast majority of Americans. Without non-privatization agreements, the average American could not seek or afford the medical attention they need.

As someone that's lived on the Canadian border for the past 20 years, I frankly think we need more regulations. Drug prices in the US are so absurdly high that most terminally sick Americans will happily drive back and forth to Windsor if it means treatment they can afford. It's a testament to America's core dysfunction, something that Canada can somehow get right on their first try but America... well, we struggled to put Shkreli behind bars.

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