Assassination of United Healthcare CEO

[The Great Zaganza]

Any day now, health insurance companies will ask the State for protection or subsidized bodyguards.

 

[Thermal]

And seriously, we can't really cheer this. Who are we to decide who should live or die? That was literally Brian Thompsons job.

 

[Olmstead]

---

NYT reporting that a guy in Connecticut who recently bought one of these oddball guns has been cleared of involvement.

It really is weird that they don't have a name attached to this guy yet. How many people have dead zero people in their lives who would know what you look like but don't watch any news?

All his friends and family are dead because they couldn't get coverage.

 

[alfaniner]

I'm still not sure the guy in the face picture is the same one in the actual murder video and the other scarfed shot. Different jacket, different backpack (looks like, to me.) We might have a Richard Jewell situation here. But that's the detectives' job.

 

[Thermal]

I'm still not sure the guy in the face picture is the same one in the actual murder video and the other scarfed shot. Different jacket, different backpack (looks like, to me.) We might have a Richard Jewell situation here. But that's the detectives' job.

I mentioned the backpack earlier. In the hostel pics, it's clearly a black shoulder strap and bag, but in the others, it's a light tan. The shooter looks noticeably slimmer, to my eye.

But the guy in the hostel pics has disappeared, too, and he was using a fake NJ ID. Surely he would have piped up by now, so no cop shoots him on sight?

 

[acbytesla]

I know people who have worked for UHC and have attested to how fanatically they pursue a denial of claims and how intentionally byzantine they make policies and payment practices. I'm not at all surprised that this violence happened, although I think you have to object to any such killing on principle. On a scale from zero to Marie Antoinette, I think we still have rational means to address the problem.

I just find it ironic that a high claim rejection rate and obscene levels of profit are excused under the guise of unfettered capitalism when the whole concept of insurance is ostensibly socialist. In theory, risk and cost are pooled and balanced against pooled premiums, with the insurer charging a fee for doing that work. The upside is that you are covered for things you would not otherwise be able to afford, at other people's expense. The downside is that you may be paying for something you yourself don't need, but which benefits someone else.
Giving that agent a profit motive is problematic enough. Generating that profit as a difference between policy payouts and policy premiums creates a moral hazard. But for now the economics a kind of messy, and the government policy that allows and encourages this are deplorable. Sigh...

Exactly, the need for profit in this case is not justified. The profit is basically skimming. The insurance company isn't providing value.

 

[rdwight]

I'm more inclined to think that sick people should receive the healthcare I'm paying for, so long as I can get it too when I need it.

Yes, but denials are always going to be a necessity. Single payer is no different in that regard. Again to tie this back to the thread I am mainly annoyed at the use of such as justification, or *wink* understanding.

Ultimately, whether it's a CEO of a health insurer, or a presidential candidate getting shot at, or a cop killing an unarmed man, or the Capitol being trashed, it's all kind of the same thing. A lot of people have had it, and want to see the place burn. People should start taking notes. A lot of the population is closer to the line than they think.

In a time and in a country where there has been no better place and time to be alive. That's the gap I have trouble closing. I don't see how that is bridged.

it's billions that could and should be covering people's healthcare


you don't get it or you don't agree with it? not agreeing is fine but there's not much to get and i've already explained the reasoning

edit

also i'm not justifying murder, i'm criticizing your defense of the necessity of the level of profit health insurance companies are making and what they're doing with it

Ok, then let's say i don't understand how people rationalize their jealousy without realizing it. He was paid $10 million a year for running one of the largest companies in the country with 440k employees and with $280 billion in revenue. Is 20x the average anesthesiologist income really absurd?

You can pick any sector of healtcare and find a reason that billions should be spread elsewhere. I just see insurance companies as shielding the others because they are easiest to hate. You can say there is no necessity to doctors getting paid 3 to 4 times as much in the us vs uk just as easily.

 

[Olmstead]

There's a perception that his job was literally to make the lives of their customers as horrible as legally possible by denying coverage, something that didn't need to happen, and the more horrible he made their lives, the more he earned. The idea is that, even if a company wants that direction, a non-bad person simply wouldn't do that job, and a less-bad person would do it in a way that is less harmful.

There's some more nuance to that, but the hatred essentially stems from that.

 

[Thermal]

In a time and in a country where there has been no better place and time to be alive. That's the gap I have trouble closing. I don't see how that is bridged.

You can live in the best, most slap happy timeline there us, and still have atrocities that people revolt against. To the OP topic, it's estimated that abt 68,000 Americans die every year due to not receiving needed medical treatment, ie denied coverage. More deplete all they own to pay for treatments they were assured would be covered in their time of need. Our upcoming president assures us that the preexisting exemption for denying Healthcare is back on the menu. That bridge is like the Golden Gate.

 

[acbytesla]

I mentioned the backpack earlier. In the hostel pics, it's clearly a black shoulder strap and bag, but in the others, it's a light tan. The shooter looks noticeably slimmer, to my eye.

But the guy in the guy in the hostel pics has disappeared, too, and he was using a fake NJ ID. Surely he would have piped up by now, so no cop shoots him on sight?

I'm assuming that there is more that connects the two. Like shots of the bike transiting the two locations. The backpack in the killing pic is very unique. If all they have is these two pics, they have nothing.

 

[plague311]

I'm assuming that there is more that connects the two. Like shots of the bike transiting the two locations. The backpack in the killing pic is very unique. If all they have is these two pics, they have nothing.

They'd have to have more since they knew he traveled from GA to NY on a bus. They have DNA according to some sources from the water bottle and wrapper. It just happened yesterday.

 

[Thermal]

I'm assuming that there is more that connects the two. Like shots of the bike transiting the two locations. The backpack in the killing pic is very unique. If all they have is these two pics, they have nothing.

The NYT reports some 200 different views of this guy. There's only the few good shots being circulated. They also have a pretty hard tracking of his movements and where he stayed and bought stuff and seen talking on the phone.

Eta: the two pics are important only because they show his face, yet seem to show a different backpack than the shooter had. Its not a matter of it being "all they have", because it seems to contradict other facts and those are the sole pics relied on for his appearance and ties to the hostel, and the fake ID that ties him to the Greyhound bus (presumably).

 

[dirtywick]

Ok, then let's say i don't understand how people rationalize their jealousy without realizing it. He was paid $10 million a year for running one of the largest companies in the country with 440k employees and with $280 billion in revenue. Is 20x the average anesthesiologist income really absurd?

You can pick any sector of healtcare and find a reason that billions should be spread elsewhere. I just see insurance companies as shielding the others because they are easiest to hate. You can say there is no necessity to doctors getting paid 3 to 4 times as much in the us vs uk just as easily.

i would agree you don't appear to understand what's been explained

they are the easiest to hate because they are doing the worst stuff

 

[porch]

cancelled post

 

[PitPat]

[wuo

Looks optimal to me. A rich CEO type is usually under practical security, like a safe home or guarded work building. The only time he's really vulnerable to the public is when he is on the sidewalk in transition. That's also why he needed to use a cheap gun with a silencer, ineffective though it might have been for sound suppression. The gun has to be a throwaway; you don't want to get caught on a ballistics match later. The silencer would not quiet it down much in the immediate vicinity, but maybe just enough to not attract a cop half a block away. At the same time, using a gun instead of a knife will discourage anyone in range from engaging you. The ebike is a perfect getaway vehicle in Manhattan- quick, agile, quiet, and after you turn a corner, you blend right in to everyone else. They'll find his outer jacket within a block or two. Police will be looking for a guy in, say, a black jacket. He will be wearing a light grey one under the lightweight black one, so if he is caught on any later video will seem to be some other anonymous ebiker.

I've thought about this a lot too.

ETA: Actually, I'm wrong about finding the jacket. It would be a lightweight windbreaker that he could roll up and take with him. Residual DNA evidence is too big a deal nowadays to be overlooked. Ordinarily, toss it in a trash can and assume no one would put two and two together if it was found, but it's a risk. If this was actually trash collection day a couple blocks away, it's outside the crime scene and not likely to have trash collection stopped so it would be long gone before police could find it, but still a risk. That's also why you do street killings in cold weather; more clothes to hide under and switch out of.

True, it was at least professional enough that they haven't caught him yet. I guess there's a water bottle they suspect is the shooter's if he was dumb enough to drink from it. Surprised they don't have a name name for him yet nor a "person of interest." Or maybe they do and just keeping it under wraps.

 

[acbytesla]

The NYT reports some 200 different views of this guy. There's only the few good shots being circulated. They also have a pretty hard tracking of his movements and where he stayed and bought stuff and seen talking on the phone.

Eta: the two pics are important only because they show his face, yet seem to show a different backpack than the shooter had. Its not a matter of it being "all they have", because it seems to contradict other facts and those are the sole pics relied on for his appearance and ties to the hostel, and the fake ID that ties him to the Greyhound bus (presumably).

I don't know what they have. I'm simply saying that the pics are only vaguely similar. The only thing that is unique in the assassination images is the backpack. I see men wearing that type of clothing all over.

 

[plague311]

Just a bit of an update, per CBS:

The man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City following the shooting, according to police.

Sources told ABC News he was spotted on board in Washington, D.C.

In each place, he paid with cash and he made sure to keep his mask on, which indicates to detectives he knew he was coming to New York City to commit the murder, sources said.

Police were also able to extract a fingerprint off a water bottle the suspect bought at a Starbucks, but the print is smudged so it's not clear how helpful it will be, sources said.

So far they still don't know where he is but they have plotted a direction he's headed in anyway. Apparently the only image of him that they were able to capture without his mask on was the one in the hostel because he was flirting with the check-in person. Without her asking to "see his smile" we wouldn't even have the image of his face, just images with his mask on.

 

[Thermal]

I don't know what they have. I'm simply saying that the pics are only vaguely similar. The only thing that is unique in the assassination images is the backpack. I see men wearing that type of clothing all over.

I gotta admit, I'm super suspicious about that backpack. It's like it was intended to draw attention, then he stashes it in Central Park.... but they can't find it? I mean, he was in there for 15 minutes, including the ride across the park. It's not like he could have buried it and planted a tree on top to conceal it. I can't think of a waterway he would have thrown it into in that area. I'm kind of wondering if he handed it off to someone, who put it in a plainer pack? I dunno. I guess we'll see eventually.

 

[Thermal]

Just a bit of an update, per CBS:

That's what I thought earlier: he left town immediately before the police got organized to figure out who they were looking for and get the word out.

So far they still don't know where he is but they have plotted a direction he's headed in anyway. Apparently the only image of him that they were able to capture without his mask on was the one in the hostel because he was flirting with the check-in person. Without her asking to "see his smile" we wouldn't even have the image of his face, just images with his mask on.

That is absolutely killing me. He wasn't going to get a freaking date; he knew he was in the wind in a matter of hours. So why? To look normal, but he didn't realize there was a camera on him? He could have said something like he was embarrassed about a cold sore or had one of his teeth knocked out, so he didn't want to show his smile. If this guy blows it because he was thinking with his dick (that he knew wasn't going anywhere) I'm going to get arrested to be in jail with him and kill him myself.

 

[plague311]

That is absolutely killing me. He wasn't going to get a freaking date; he knew he was in the wind in a matter of hours. So why? To look normal, but he didn't realize there was a camera on him? He could have said something like he was embarrassed about a cold sore or had one of his teeth knocked out, so he didn't want to show his smile. If this guy blows it because he was thinking with his dick (that he knew wasn't going anywhere) I'm going to get arrested to be in jail with him and kill him myself.

Personally I think CBS is being a bit disingenuous. I think the front desk person asked him to remove his mask to match it with the ID in order to check-in. I had to do that a few times during the COVID era. I agree with what you're saying though. He was disciplined enough to go throughout the rest of NYC with a mask on and not revealing himself. To take it off just for the sake of a flirting session is pretty...Cajun (That's a Tom Segura joke).