Is it true that there are people who are cheering the murder of the medical CEO? Today is the last day of class, so I’ve been outside the news cycle. But we had a department meeting today where everybody was very eager to discuss this murder and the general mood was that the murderer needs to be caught and locked up ASAP.
Is it an exaggeration that people are celebrating? I’ve seen some mentions of this phenomenon but it’s too out there for me to believe it.
My newsfeed is, ah… not celebrating exactly, but also not sad, horrified, or even sympathetic to the family. If there is any profession in America more universally hated than IRS auditor, it is probably Health Insurance CEO.
I read the general mood as “people are hoping for more such incidents”.
“Is it an exaggeration that people are celebrating?”
Not cheering, but there is an undercurrent of ‘good’ in a lot of comments. It’s worth noting that his company was noted for refusing claims (just shy of one third) which represents a number of people dead or personal bankruptcies.
My feeling is sort of like a mafia guy getting killed. Find the killer and put them away but don’t expect me to have misty eyes at the funeral.
There’s also already conspiracy theories about him being a whistleblower about to testify about something or other.
Weirdest theory I’ve seen: He died of a heart attack and the footage of the killer was added in for……. reasons…. okay? Reasons!!!!
This one pretty much sums it up:
…and the more balanced side is posting like:
https://x.com/ActualDrDom/status/1864680176564752531
https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1864894901042720931
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“White, heterosexual, male: sorry, you’re part of the problem as a member of the transgressor class and as such your claim to innocence can never be entertained.”
This is how the currently hegemonic culture seems to see any event. Had it been a black transsexual lesbian to have done all the things this unfortunate CEO is accused of doing, people would have wailed against cisheteronormative patriarchy in high-pitched notes.
That’s what I thought. The wife, the new girlfriend, the new girlfriend’s boyfriend. These are all possibilities.
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Ideological assassinations are rare. IIRC most of them are intimate partner or business partner deals.
Though it *is* kind of interesting that such a large cohort of people seem to *want* it to be ideological, or some personal vendetta related to his job.
There are a lot of people out there who’ve been f***ed over by insurance companies, and would feel well-represented by that scenario.
Heh.
Obviously we don’t want a situation where gunmen go around shooting people in the streets, whether the gunmen are hired professionals or dumb thugs.
But we do seem to have stumbled across a uniquely unifying political issue: absolutely everyone wants to stick it to the the healthcare industry. I’d like to think there are smart pols out there who could run with that. But the industry is so big it probably purchases all of them up front.
I’m probably one of maybe 15 people in the US who has good feelings towards the US medical insurance system. I know what it’s like in Canada, and the system in the US is so dramatically superior that I thank God constantly if exists.
I wouldn’t have Klara if my pregnancy happened in Canada. Simple as that.
My spouse works for a large hospital and has had to deal with United Healthcare. They are apparently incredibly annoying compared to most other insurance companies. They contact the hospital with tons of questions and requests for additional, usually redundant, information about every single claim that gets filed. Like multiple calls EVERY day asking if an urgent care clinic isn’t really an emergency room (has a higher co-pay) and requests for doctors to write extra letters justifying really routine treatments. Huge amounts of staff and doctor time get wasted dealing with them because they are hunting for ways to deny claims or pay less than they really should. They are clearly trying to cheat their own customers and they drive up healthcare costs for everyone else because all that staff and doctor time is not free.
I’m not celebrating this guy’s death, but he seems to have been running a corporation with really horrible business practices. If we ever learn who the killer is, I won’t be at all surprised if it is the relative of someone who died because needed care was denied.
I saw a reddit thread of a nurse using one of UHC’s blizzard of denial forms to parody the man’s death: “We realize that you are currently ‘bleeding out’, however your obligation to explore less costly modes of care requires…” Very dank humor, probably works ER.
The scene which probably influenced most Americans – running in the background of their cultural assumptions as if it were a personal experience – is an the opening bit from Pixar’s Incredibles. In it Bob “Daniel-Pennys” in a MegaInsuraCorp office.
The most interesting observation I read, however, comes from the Coffee and Covid stack. To wit: That a member of the ruling caste which normalized public mask-wearing for medically- and ethically-retarded reasons; that man died at the hand of an assassin making use of the new normal.
Brian Thompson’s proposal of levying penalties on people for non-essential ER visits was abysmal even by low standards of greedy insurance companies. Apparently the gunman used ammunition emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” — echoing the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” used to describe the infamous tactics of insurers of delaying payment, denying a claim and then defending their actions. So it is quite likely that he indeed lost someone to UHC’s wolfish policies.
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Several major insurance companies, if not all of the major ones have wiped their pages that list the names and bios of their executives.
The shells left at the scene had “deny, defend, depose” written on them.
The police think he’s left New York City, so now there’s a nationwide manhunt.
He’ll be caught within a month, if not a week, so I’m not worried about that.
Of course everyone at the meeting hopes the killer will be caught soon. For the usual reasons.
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The guy came into the city on November 24 from a bus that originated in Atlanta. He left the city on a bus. The police say they’re closer to making an id on the man and the FBI has raised the reward to 50,000.
Some people held an assassin look a like contest in Washington Park.
The backpack which was discarded in Central Park had a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and …Monopoly money.
“The guy came into the city”
Some are saying the figure had a female (inline) gait and at least one picture looks very androgynous…. (walking toward Thomspons maybe but then after shooting the toes are pointing outward).
I wonder how much stuff around this is camouglage and smoke screens….
At this point, it’s a bit like a TV murder mystery….
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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