9 Comments

Thank you for this. If anyone should understand why this sort of thing should be universally and unconditionally condemned, it should be psychiatrists, for whom thinking about threats of violence often go with the job.

Expand full comment

There is no level of a bad decision in a business context that gives anybody the right to put a bullet in your chest.

Easy India Company

Colonialism

Exploitation of the third world (see Chevron in the amazon)

Not a fan of death but when business acts against the code of morality it’s funny when they get the karmic justice the law has failed to give them.

Lets fight to build a world where its not funny because justice is real

Expand full comment

Its pretty funny.

Expand full comment

With apprehension, I present this update:

Suspect in Killing of Insurance C.E.O. May Have Left Messages on Bullet Casings

The casings were apparently inscribed with words including “delay” and “deny,” officials said — possible references to ways that health insurance companies seek to avoid paying patients’ claims.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/05/nyregion/brian-thompson-unitedhealthcare-news/b394ac8b-4b7c-5962-8c6e-04d61f0166c7?smid=url-share

I lack the wisdom, training, and expertise to come up with ANY type of interpretation of this heinous crime.

Expand full comment

Fair enough. You're not wrong.

But you know what the killer's story will be. His five-year-old daughter or 30-year-old wife had some terribly painful, crippling and wasting disease. The most horrible way to die imaginable. Medicare would have paid for the doctors, specialists, and incredibly expensive chemical treatments in a flash. They were scientifically and medically correct. And Medicare's mission is to deliver benefits to clients. And it has the luxury of not worrying about premiums that come from the tax system.

UnitedHealthcare, I will bet you, denied all benefits to one or the other dying females, and despite the husband/father's constant pleas gave prior approval to her seeing only one specialist. And declared that the treatment prescribed -- used successfully on hundreds of patients -- was experimental and they would not pay for it. Hell, you've seen the movie. This is not an original script. The private health insurance industry has a business mission to maximize profits, and minimizing benefits is the fastest way to get there. Then why, oh why, are they in charge of paying for healthcare with a mission not to?

Paying for healthcare, rather than delivering it, will never be fair and right until some other system substitutes for all the insurance companies. Medicare for All would do nicely, except it is horribly unfair in how it pays doctors to deliver healthcare. Important to keep paying and delivering as separate ideas. Nomi Health, a start-up in Park City, Utah, is trying to create that better way. https://www.nomihealth.com/ [Disclosure: I'm an angel investor]

So back to the killer. She died, he plotted his revenge. He carried it out. He knows someone killed her. He knows that. Just not who.

Expand full comment

I'm friends with the team at Nomi, I think they're doing it the right way. Murder is the wrong way. I'm not gonna change my mind about that. There are a few people who are more relentlessly critical of the business practices of United healthcare, truly. Lawsuits exist to solve disputes about how to manage scarce resources in a complex healthcare landscape. So does building better business. I'm never going get behind murder. Never.

Expand full comment

Not asking you to get behind murder. But what is the solution when the people in charge of paying for our healthcare have the mission and are rewarded mainly for making sure we don't get it? Or at least less of it.

Catching up on the coverage, I am startled every time I read this line in the NYT:

"Chief executive officers of health care companies often receive threats because of the nature of their work."

We know the nature of their work though most readers don't. And they must be made to change it. You know the numbers. Private insurance companies say 20% of revenue goes for overhead and administration. The bloated, federal bureaucracy of Medicare?? It pays only 5% for overhead and administration. Anyone lying here?

When the killer is caught, goes on trial and tells his story, I'm sure the jury will ignore the law and find him not guilty. And every insurance executive who knows in his heart that what he is supervising is evil will be chilled.

Expand full comment

Fuck off loser

Expand full comment