Assassination of United Healthcare CEO

[Thermal]

That's for sure. After all, what's more American than using gun violence to solve the health care problem?

*Australian schizophrenics bury their faces in their hands*

 

[shemp]

That's for sure. After all, what's more American than using gun violence to solve the health care problem?

Makes sense to me. Once you're dead, you don't need health care.

 

[William Parcher]

CNN: Police find backpack.

 

[Thermal]

Investigation is still ongoing.

Barely started, really. They need to get their hands on backpack boy to go much further. The rest is academic.

 

[Thermal]

Interesting that the killer knew where Thompson would be and when. It was a one-off early meeting of investors, but the shooter just happened to know that Thomson would be there at 6:45AM on a dark sidewalk? That's not the kind of thing you find by googling a CEOs name.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

The way Anthem is being framed is purely one-sided and highly demonizing. Makes them look like ogres. Are they really? What do they say in their defense? Can they even publicly say "our fraud prevention team has determined we're being ◊◊◊◊◊◊ like a ten dollar hooker with redundant billing and this was one of the culprits, but it's the one that bleeds, so it leads"?

Who cares? What matters is that we have an ogre to attack, rather that working out an equitable healthcare system that everyone can get behind - which will never happen because people have different ideas about what 'equitable' means. Far more satisfying to just go for a solution that's simple, easy, and wrong - like shooting CEOs.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Interesting that the killer knew where Thompson would be and when. It was a one-off early meeting of investors, but the shooter just happened to know that Thomson would be there at 6:45AM on a dark sidewalk? That's not the kind of thing you find by googling a CEOs name.

Interesting. I googled Brian Thompson, and guess what came up?

The Associated Press said Thompson kept "a low public profile". However, he was in the public spotlight for a few moments including during an investor meeting in 2023 when he announced UnitedHealthcare was shifting to a "value-based care" model by paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy rather than focusing on treating them after they get sick...

On December 4, 2024, Thompson was in New York for an annual UnitedHealthcare investors meeting. He left a Marriott hotel where he was staying, which was across the street from the New York Hilton Midtown, where the meeting was to be held.

The killer probably knew where he was staying, and simply waited for him to reach a suitable spot to murder him. It may well be that he usually stayed at the same hotel for the annual investor meeting, whose location and date (if not time) was public knowledge.

 

[acbytesla]

From what I can see, it would be very difficult to pr

Who cares? What matters is that we have an ogre to attack, rather that working out an equitable healthcare system that everyone can get behind - which will never happen because people have different ideas about what 'equitable' means. Far more satisfying to just go for a solution that's simple, easy, and wrong - like shooting CEOs.

No.

It's an ogre that has led to lots of deaths and bankruptcies. While I don't believe in a perfect healthcare system, I do believe billions of dollars in profits and CEOs making tens of millions of dollars annually is NOT EQUITABLE. Profiting from the suffering of others is likely to make sympathy from the unwashed highly unlikely.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

I don't approve of vigilante killing. But I also believe that insurance companies cheat whenever they can.

If they do then they should be punished for it. I punish my health insurer every day by never buying health insurance. Apparently that's not possible in the US though.

But this incident will go a long way towards punishing them, provided we all support the narrative that insurance companies always cheat whenever they can so it's OK if their CEOs get murdered for it. Even better if we imply that we would do the same thing ourselves with a little provocation. Please help the cause by providing your own tales of corporate malfeasance, or if you don't have any simply LOL to show that you think murdering one of them is funny. Don't worry that you might be in a small minority of amoral pricks egging on extremism for the fun of it, the news media are doing their best to make it look like the majority of us feel the same.

I bet a few CEOs (and others) are quaking in their boots right now. Hell, I had sleepless nights just thinking about a deadbeat customer who always led a conversation "I'm suing you!". He never did, but it was the thought that counted. Eventually I got out of the business due to the stress a few nutcases caused me. If it had included death threats or actual bullets I would have closed up shop immediately and permanently, like the convenience store at the end of my street did after a skinhead tried to blow up the place. Can't have no Indians (from India) taking jobs from real citizens and ripping us off!

 

[newyorkguy]

CNN: Police find backpack.

It was found by police searching Central Park late this afternoon. They also found clothing and several other objects of interest.

Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives, gave specific times where cameras caught the gunman’s movements after the shooting, which took place at 6:44 a.m. on Wednesday. He fled, first on foot, then on a bike, and pedaled into Central Park at 60th Street at 6:48 a.m., four minutes after the shooting. At 6:56 a.m., he left the park, still on the bicycle, at 77th Street on the Upper West Side. Surveillance footage then showed him near 86th Street and Columbus Avenue, still on the bicycle, two minutes later. Around 7 a.m., he got into a cab that took him to the Port Authority bus depot in Upper Manhattan used by interstate buses. Surveillance footage shows him going in, but not coming out, Kenny said...In a briefing with reporters, Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, said the man they are seeking arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 by a bus that originated in Atlanta. When he arrived in New York, he went to the Hilton first, according to surveillance footage. New York Times news article link

.......Shooter's Timeline established by NYPD


Also of interest, the Times reported:

Joseph Kenny, the chief detective, said that investigators are looking into the possibility that the gunman used what’s known as a veterinary gun, a larger firearm used on farms and ranches. “If an animal has to get put down, the animal can be shot without” the weapon causing a large noise, Kenny said.

 

[acbytesla]

Interesting. I googled Brian Thompson, and guess what came up?

The killer probably knew where he was staying, and simply waited for him to reach a suitable spot to murder him. It may well be that he usually stayed at the same hotel for the annual investor meeting, whose location and date (if not time) was public knowledge.

I have stayed in that hotel

If they do then they should be punished for it. I punish my health insurer every day by never buying health insurance. Apparently that's not possible in the US though.

But this incident will go a long way towards punishing them, provided we all support the narrative that insurance companies always cheat whenever they can so it's OK if their CEOs get murdered for it. Even better if we imply that we would do the same thing ourselves with a little provocation. Please help the cause by providing your own tales of corporate malfeasance, or if you don't have any simply LOL to show that you think murdering one of them is funny. Don't worry that you might be in a small minority of amoral pricks egging on extremism for the fun of it, the news media are doing their best to make it look like the majority of us feel the same.

I bet a few CEOs (and others) are quaking in their boots right now. Hell, I had sleepless nights just thinking about a deadbeat customer who always led a conversation "I'm suing you!". He never did, but it was the thought that counted. Eventually I got out of the business due to the stress a few nutcases caused me. If it had included death threats or actual bullets I would have closed up shop immediately and permanently, like the convenience store at the end of my street did after a skinhead tried to blow up the place. Can't have no Indians (from India) taking jobs from real citizens and ripping us off!

I had a house and carried home and fire insurance. Unfortunately I had a fire that resulted in the home being a total loss. The insurance company denied the claim. They should have paid my temporary housing and for my home being rebuilt. I was forced to file suit. Eventually the company settled. But the settlement only covered my mortgage, but not my equity. My experiences with insurance companies is that they are there to collect the premiums, but that they ALWAYS attempt to either under pay the claim or not at all.

 

[rdwight]

Oh, definitely. The UKs system also needs decisions to be made about whether a particular treatment should be offered to all or is just too expensive for the benefit it might deliver. That's sometimes contentious if they say no, but I imagine that's nothing compared to a system where the payer is making decisions about every individual case based on their individual cover and with an incentive to say no wherever possible.

Do you think it is better for the expensive option to be denied to all or available but gatekeeped? A lot of these "insurance killed xyz" stuff is literally that so I wonder given the option which people would choose and if it was administered by the state they would be less likely to blame the deaths on the decision makers.

 

[acbytesla]

Do you think it is better for the expensive option to be denied to all or available but gatekeeped? A lot of these "insurance killed xyz" stuff is literally that so I wonder given the option which people would choose and if it was administered by the state they would be less likely to blame the deaths on the decision makers.

What the hell are you talking about? America"s health care system is broken. Prescription drugs are double, triple, quadruple what the exact same drugs are in Europe and Canada. Insurance profits skim anywhere from 10 to 25 percent on top of that.

Hospitals etc make it impossible for people to manage their own care. I had a hernia operation about 15 years ago. I endlessly tried to determine the cost ahead of time. And thought I had it nailed. I knew what my surgeon was charging. I knew what my anesthesiologist was charging. I knew what the Hospital was billing. This was an in and out procedure where I showed up at 9 AM and was being taken home at 12 AM. All the bills seemed entirely in line. That was until I received a bill for $3,000 from a doctor I had never even heard of. This was totally out of the blue. And nobody including that doctor could tell me what he did.

I have relatives that live in Canada and in the UK. And they will tell you it's not perfect, but they wouldn't trade it for the fiscal insanity of America's health-care.

 

[dann]

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

They may be trying to remove themselves from the internet.

apparently health CEOs are getting their Wiki pages deleted

https://twitter.com/x/status/1865072318390898701

It doesn't seem to work

The AfD page is interesting. A handful near-immediate Delete votes, followed by a wall of completely unanimous Keep votes. Would not be suprised if these companies have armies of sockpuppet accounts.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1865077583764693172

 

[Thermal]

Interesting. I googled Brian Thompson, and guess what came up?

Not a damn thing, as we shall see.

First off, you only link and quote from the Wiki page, quoting sections that didn't exist before the murder, so the killer would not have been physically able to search this (go ahead, check the source dates for your excerpts: December 4, 2024). So your citation is useless.

The conference announces itself via press release. See the links below for their actual press release dates, each about a week before the actual conference:

UnitedHealth Group to Host 2024 Investor Conference

UnitedHealth Group will host its annual Investor Conference for analysts and institutional investors in New York City on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST.

www.unitedhealthgroup.com

UnitedHealth Group to Host 2023 Investor Conference

UnitedHealth Group will host its annual Investor Conference with analysts and institutional investors in New York City on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET.

www.unitedhealthgroup.com

If you are sharp eyed, you'll notice that the address of the conference is not publicized. That's because it's a private, invitational affair of investors. It ain't no public ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Renaissance Fair. It only says that it's in NYC. You may not be aware of this, but NYC is on the large side. Kind of a lot of places to hold conferences. In fact, you could hold one in a different venue each and every year. Had that occurred to you?

So bottom line: the location (Hilton Hotel) was not publicized, either this week's conference or last year's. Yet you think the killer just kind of "knew" which hotel it was being held? Do you pose that the killer is psychic?

The killer probably knew where he was staying,

Why in the name of God would you assert something like this? The killer "just happened" to know where this guy would be staying for a conference that the killer didn't even know where was being held? This is utterly ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ ridiculous.

and simply waited for him to reach a suitable spot to murder him. It may well be that he usually stayed at the same hotel for the annual investor meeting, whose location and date (if not time) was public knowledge.

As I hope you understand now, the annual conference is held on different dates at undisclosed locations. So how did the killer know that at 6:45 ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ AM that Thompson would be there? The NYT reports that the killer arrived 5 minutes before the shooting. He knew when and where Thompson would be. That says to me that he was hired, and told exactly when and where he would find his target on an uncrowded dark sidewalk.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Perhaps he's a shareholder. Shareholders get letters in the mail (like it's the 19th century or something!) saying when and where meetings will be, and can actually attend (although I assume normally only a fraction of them do).

 

[Thermal]

I don't think shareholders get invited to investors conferences. Different animals.

 

[a_unique_person]

Has anyone noticed that the handgun police believe was used is not an semi-auto, but a bolt action? Apparently a copy from WWII for covert missions (STATION SIX 9). I had been convinced it was misfiring as I saw a full cartridge on the ground during a news broadcast. Maybe that was left behind by hand if it was one of the ones with words printed on them. It sounds to me like it's inherently suppressed, even though the ABC news article that turned me onto it said no silencer, just a long barrel that renders it almost silent. From my understanding not even any kind of silencer can do that. Manufacturer showing a price of over $2000, and out of stock. This changes my perception of this being amateur hour.

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect allegedly flashed smile while flirting with hostel worker

Police appear to be closing in on an identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan.

abcnews.go.com

STATION SIX 9 | B&T USA

The B&T Station SIX-9 is a modern 9mm covert pistol, blending classic design with advanced engineering for discreet and reliable performance.

bt-usa.com

Discreet and reliable performance. Only in America.

 

[rdwight]

What the hell are you talking about? America"s health care system is broken. Prescription drugs are double, triple, quadruple what the exact same drugs are in Europe and Canada. Insurance profits skim anywhere from 10 to 25 percent on top of that.

I mean, if you read what I wrote my question was specific and straightforward. Mainly though I've been talking about health insurance, not the entire healthcare system. Most here seem to believe people hate it in the abstract, which may be true, but they personally seem to like their own plans.

KFF did a survey on this not too long ago, 81% rates their insurance as excellent or good. Only 3% as poor. These are not numbers that convince me the industry is a hated leech that would lead to murdering a CEO in charge of one being understandable, let alone celebrated.

 

[acbytesla]

Wouldn't it be interesting if we all got it wrong and this killing had nothing to do with health insurance. Like maybe the wife hired a hit man. Or it was a mob hit and he has cheated some mobster.