Brian Thompson’s killing sparks outrage over state of US healthcare

[jas007]

19 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Well it's another sign that the US political process isn't working. 

Quite the contrary.  It's working exactly as planned for the big insurance companies.  After all, remember where the money comes from.  America seems to have the best congress that money can buy and insurance companies have good lobbyists with lots of money to throw around.  

 

Anyone who has ever worked in DC will be happy to tell you stories about lobbyists. They're everywhere.  Even at congressional staff nights on the town, there's always some guy there with a nice credit card to pay for everything.  It happens every day. 

[mokwit]

If the assassin is never found (and thus cant be smeared/vilified) he is likely to go down in history as a folk hero judging from social media. The health insurance industry might want to reflect on what got us to this point.

 

Seems Blue Cross suddenly reversed its decision to make people pay for anesthesia if surgery went over a preset time. How did that fit in with the concept of Insurance. It seems they are dictating one sided terms that suit only them and their profitability. That is not insurance.

[mokwit]

21 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Fox News is free.

Just as with The Guardian and the letter stations, you get what you pay for.

[jerrymahoney]

 Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/days-after-gunman-killed-unitedhealthcares-ceo-police-push-116550758

Reports have also referenced that it seemed the gunman knew exactly which door the late Mr. Thompson would be entering and when.

 

Maybe the 'disgruntled employee' would know those things more than the other hypothesis.

[Prubangboy]

I'm enjoying the conspiracy angle:

 

-The assassin knew exactly where he'd be and when he'd be there. (cross posted with the above).

 

-He was scheduled to testify about insider trading.

 

-An estranged wife with a lover.

 

 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Prubangboy said:

I'm enjoying the conspiracy angle:

 

-The assassin knew exactly where he'd be and when he'd be there. (cross posted with the above).

 

-He was scheduled to testify about insider trading.

 

-An estranged wife with a lover.

 

 

Are you a family insider.........?  

[Prubangboy]

11 minutes ago, transam said:

Are you a family insider.........?  

Nah, just someone who skimmed some comments on Yahoo.

[transam]

1 minute ago, Prubangboy said:

Nah, just someone who skimmed some comments on Yahoo.

That's OK then.............

[GypsyT]

On 12/6/2024 at 12:33 PM, Yagoda said:

Fox News is free.

I thought it was "Vox".

Like some "Trumper" here pointed out.

[impulse]

4 hours ago, Dave0206 said:

4 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Not true.  I hated health insurance companies long before I ever heard of Bernie.

 

I should have included sarcasm ⚠️ alert ?

 

And I should have qualified that I don't hate health insurance companies.  Just American ones.  The Euro company that covered my bypass in Bangkok 10 years ago was a treat compared to my experiences in the US health insurance market.  Most expensive hospital in Thailand and they picked up 100%.  (Of course, it was still 1/10 of what my brother was charged last year in a US hospital).  I never asked him what his insurance picked up.  Next time I see him...

 

[Prubangboy]

But as long as I'm here:

 

'Just read an 700 page bio of Che Guevera while on my India tour.  This execution is something the ol' beret wearing icon would approve of and do.

 

It's possible that we're entering a Che-style era of extra-judicial protest-killing. Surfing Reddit, the approval this murder gets is about 95%. Che and Fidel took over Cuba with very few men; it was the soft approval of the population that put them over. The hardening of the hearts of average people against the rich in this incidence reminds me of that.

 

Said JFK (referencing Che): "When peaceful change is impossible, revolution is inevitable". Sidebar: I see Che on posters all over India, urging youth to join the communist party. 60 years after the bullet to his head, he's still scaring people.

 

I am of the left and have some amazing evil insurer tales. But if this gets traction, it will be a disaster. Who wants to live in American Falluja? The right is already itching to use the army against civilians in the states.

 

It's important to separate grievance from the right to murder. I see that separation being blurred on the left and the right will very soon be returning the sentiment.

[jas007]

1 hour ago, Prubangboy said:

I am of the left and have some amazing evil insurer tales. But if this gets traction, it will be a disaster. Who wants to live in American Falluja? The right is already itching to use the army against civilians in the states.

 

It's important to separate grievance from the right to murder. I see that separation being blurred on the left and the right will very soon be returning the sentiment.

Evil insurer tales, for sure. That's how they play the game these days, or so it seems.  Don't think, though, if this was in fact a grievance murder, that the people who would do such a thing are worried about right and wrong. They're past that point.  Someone paid for insurance and didn't get it.  Or, they had a loved one who died as the result of a denial of care.  For them, the "system" didn't work.  So they hired Luca Brasi for "justice." 

[John Drake]

6 minutes ago, jas007 said:

Evil insurer tales, for sure. That's how they play the game these days, or so it seems.  Don't think, though, if this was in fact a grievance murder, that the people who would do such a thing are worried about right and wrong. They're past that point.  Someone paid for insurance and didn't get it.  Or, they had a loved one who died as the result of a denial of care.  For them, the "system" didn't work.  So they hired Luca Brasi for "justice." 

 

Even if they get the insurance, they're still in virtual financial slavery for the premium and co-pays, so that whatever life saved can be ruined as well. That's why you encounter people who would rather die than put their families in debt slavery to the health care system.

[Dcheech]

Less than 1 percent of denied health insurance claims are even challenged in the US.

[John Drake]

3 minutes ago, Dcheech said:

Less than 1 percent of denied health insurance claims are even challenged in the US.

 

Because the claimant is in the morgue?

[Old Curmudgeon]

Was it just another hoax???

 

The Healthcare CEO's Murder is Another Fake.

 

Lots of evidence at that link points to "hoax".

 

[Old Curmudgeon]

On 12/6/2024 at 9:24 AM, John Drake said:

... a company that employed an AI that at one point was denying 90 percent of claims.

 

Actual evidence?

Or social media echo chamber?

[John Drake]

4 minutes ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

 

Actual evidence?

Or social media echo chamber?

 

I provided the link above.  Here it is again. https://www.yahoo.com/news/murdered-insurance-ceo-had-deployed-175638581.html

[jerrymahoney]

The Yahoo linked article above was written by Noor Al-Sibai and I think he got that 90% figure wrong -- in the lawsuit it says that 90% of the claim denials that were appealed were reversed.

[Old Curmudgeon]

2 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

I provided the link above.  Here it is again.

 

Thanks, @John Drake.

 

Instead of asking for "evidence" I should have asked,

"How did you come to trust Yahoo News?"

I wouldn't.

It is my guess (guess only, with no hard evidence) that Yahoo and similar "mainstream news" providers are likely to be part of the hoax, if it is a hoax.

And "hoax" is my starting point for this "story".

[JemJem]

WTF?! Okay, let us say it is not unusual for face recognition stuff not to work all the time. But, ain't no one know or recogize this guy?! 🙂

 

Weird. 

[Sandboxer]

Boo hoo hoo, so sad.

 

Not.

[Celsius]

6 minutes ago, Sandboxer said:

Boo hoo hoo, so sad.

 

Not.

 

Americans are divided on every issue, but this could be a unifying event.

 

I had no idea insurance CEOs are hated so much. I thought insurance denials would be rare in America especially after Obama.

[Old Curmudgeon]

2 hours ago, Prubangboy said:

Said JFK (referencing Che): "When peaceful change is impossible, revolution is inevitable". Sidebar: I see Che on posters all over India, urging youth to join the communist party. ...

if this gets traction, it will be a disaster. Who wants to live in American Falluja?

 

Helpful analysis.

Useful anecdotes.

Thanks, @Prubangboy for taking your time to write those posts.

[Dcheech]

2 minutes ago, Celsius said:

I had no idea insurance CEOs are hated so much. I thought insurance denials would be rare in America especially after Obama.

Back to whining about Obama?!  

 Obamacare is a step in the right direction. However one that Republicans have sworn, repeatedly, to destroy, except they can't, because healthcare insurance in the US is so fricking bleak. Donald claimed he would 8 years ago. He was going to replace it with something 'so good, so great,  so beautiful', the usual Donald verbal spew, but he did nothing. Just more BS, from the President of BS.

 

[impulse]

22 minutes ago, Celsius said:

 

Americans are divided on every issue, but this could be a unifying event.

 

I had no idea insurance CEOs are hated so much. I thought insurance denials would be rare in America especially after Obama.

 

I don't recall ever meeting an American without a "health insurance screwed me" story.  I certainly have mine.  Lots of them, though none of catastrophic magnitude.  But that's a tough way to live- doing everything right and still being afraid of going bankrupt.

 

Edit:  So, in that respect, it is a great unifier.  You can have lefties, righties, Blacks, whites and Asians all around the same dinner table, and that topic will have them all agreeing.

 

It does go off the rails when solutions come up for discussion...

 

[Prubangboy]

Bob Marley's Ghost weighs in:

 

I Shot The CE-O

But I did not shoot the CFO.

[Screaming]

On 12/6/2024 at 11:10 AM, John Drake said:

 

I think the US healthcare system has become such an abomination that there are likely thousands, if not tens of thousands, of time bombs out there who feel they haven't got anything to lose.

Unlike the UK socialist health care system where recipients must wait over a year for primary care and end up dying of their illness.

[Dave0206]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

I don't recall ever meeting an American without a "health insurance screwed me" story.  I certainly have mine.  Lots of them, though none of catastrophic magnitude.  But that's a tough way to live- doing everything right and still being afraid of going bankrupt.

 

Edit:  So, in that respect, it is a great unifier.  You can have lefties, righties, Blacks, whites and Asians all around the same dinner table, and that topic will have them all agreeing.

 

It does go off the rails when solutions come up for discussion...

 

You are right in so many ways I heard bernie say so many peoples health care is tied in with there work so when trying to get better wages the company holds that over you. 

Of course the I'm alright Jack mentality works until you are laid off then people understand others problems. 

 

[jas007]

2 hours ago, John Drake said:

 

Even if they get the insurance, they're still in virtual financial slavery for the premium and co-pays, so that whatever life saved can be ruined as well. That's why you encounter people who would rather die than put their families in debt slavery to the health care system.

 Personally, I've never had any kind of denial for any kind of health insurance claim.  I can't say that I've had any major claims, though, until recently in Thailand, where my Geo Blue carrier paid  471,000 baht for eye surgery.  Even at that, the Blue Cross Blue Shield company ultimately paying the claim probably wasn't too bothered by what would about br a claim amounting to around $14,000.  In the US, that's peanuts these days. 

 

Nor can I remember any member of my family ever having any kind of health claim denied.  

 

I used to see cases, though, years ago and in another life, at the federal court level. Insurance companies using revery trick in the book, including hired medical experts,  to try to weasel out of legitimate claims.  And the insurance companies weren't about to pay those claims unless some court made them.  Truly despicable treatment of sick people.