Assassination of United Healthcare CEO

[crescent]

Reported here and elsewhere.

United Healthcare makes billions in profits, and generates its profits by denying coverage whenever possible. It is a standard American for-profit healthcare that only uses patient care as a means to generate profit for shareholders.

This sounds cruel, but check your social media feeds: people are happy about this, celebrating even. As far as many Americans are concerned healthcare execs like this guy have murdered millions (via denied coverage) but gloss it over with a thin veneer of corporate respectability.

I am hoping that the public reaction to this shocks the American health insurance overlords. Maybe they'll learn to actually prioritize people over profits.

ETA: His name was Brian Thompson, for whatever that is worth.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

don't ask me about the morals of shooting up a Megacorp Boardroom compared a Synagogue, Mosque or Church - because I might give you an answer.

 

[crescent]

I love the timing of this announcement regarding Blue Cross/Blue Shield:

More Perfect Union (@moreperfectunion.bsky.social)

Blue Cross Blue Shield in Connecticut, New York and Missouri has declared it will no longer pay for anesthesia for the full length of some surgeries. It the procedure goes over a certain time, anesthesia will not be covered for the duration...

bsky.app

Because that's how America does healthcare.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I am hoping that the public reaction to this shocks the American health insurance overlords. Maybe they'll learn to actually prioritize people over profits.

That seems unlikely considering the lack of empathy is precisely the problem with these people.

 

[PitPat]

United is actually my healthcare insurance. Hope this doesn't raise my premiums.

Very strange, sounds like maybe some disturbed person who felt wronged by something. But we'll see eventually.

 

[shemp]

You pretty much have to be a rat-ass bastard to run a successful healthcare company. He'll just be replaced by another rat-ass bastard, there's no shortage of them.

 

[dudalb]

I see some people here seem to be making excuses for this killing.
if you want to play by those rules, fine, but then don;t bitch about how violence is rising in the USA....

 

[Axxman300]

The killer remains at large. We have no motivation. I notice his gun jammed, and he cycled it, cleared it, and resumed shooting. And his getaway vehicle was an e-bike. Personally, I doubt this was about healthcare.

Oh, and his replacement will also be a heartless SOB too, so nothing will change on that front.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I see some people here seem to be making excuses for this killing.

To understand is not necessarily to excuse. But nobody has sufficient information to actually understand anything yet, it's just speculation.

 

[LiteBright]

I wouldn't condone vigilante justice if that's what this is, but I am also not going to shed a single tear for this guy who made himself fabulously wealthy by hurting others.

Interestingly, the company's stock went up today.

 

[crescent]

I notice his gun jammed, and he cycled it, cleared it, and resumed shooting. A

According to CNN it appears to have jammed three times, but he cleared it each time. Like he was very familiar with guns, enough to clear a jam quickly and easily. But then again, if he was that familiar with guns, why did he have a p.o.s. gun that jammed after nearly every shot?

 

[Ranb]

CNN is commenting on the murder. Their guest uses words like "confident", murder for hire", "high degree of training" and "advanced piece of equipment". I was like "WTF?".

I am merely proficient with a handgun, but I can tell that this guy appeared to be unable to select a proper weapon for the job. It malfunctioned at least twice. It shows him shoot Thompson once, who then falls. The shooter then fumbles with the pistol slide several times to get off one or two more shots.

Not sure why this guy thought using a silencer to murder someone in public was a good idea. A suppressed 9mm handguns is still rather loud when suppressed and it appears that the silencer may have been the cause of the malfunctions he experienced. Without a proper recoil booster and a lighter slide spring (sometimes required) malfunctions are more common when shooting suppressed.

There is video of the murder here;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864399853779886510

The victim is blurred out, but it is still graphic.

 

[PitPat]

CNN is commenting on the murder. Their guest uses words like "confident", murder for hire", "high degree of training" and "advanced piece of equipment". I was like "WTF?".

I am merely proficient with a handgun, but I can tell that this guy appeared to be unable to select a proper weapon for the job. It malfunctioned at least twice. It shows him shoot Thompson once, who then falls. The shooter then fumbles with the pistol slide several times to get off one or two more shots.

Not sure why this guy thought using a silencer to murder someone in public was a good idea. A suppressed 9mm handguns is still rather loud when suppressed and it appears that the silencer may have been the cause of the malfunctions he experienced. Without a proper recoil booster and a lighter slide spring (sometimes required) malfunctions are more common when shooting suppressed.

There is video of the murder here;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864399853779886510

The victim is blurred out, but it is still graphic.

Yeah in the morning in midtown Manhattan, couldn't think of anything less professional. And I've thought about it a lot.

 

[shemp]

Yeah in the morning in midtown Manhattan, couldn't think of anything less professional. And I've thought about it a lot.

Maybe he's just not a very good pro.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Maybe he's just not a very good pro.

Perhaps he is sick but had to go to work anyway because his health insurance sucks.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Oh, and his replacement will also be a heartless SOB too, so nothing will change on that front.

Excuse me, stupid question from the back row, but....

Why does the CEO of a health insurance company need to be a heartless bastard?
Why can't a company just fulfill it's contractual obligations to its policy holders instead of rejecting their claims as the business model? Why do people who paid for their insurance have to spend days on hold in "customer" phone lines causing other companies productivity and their own customers suffering and pain?
Why do we value companies by the profit they generate instead of how satisfied their customers are?

Sorry, I remember - the answer is US style unfettered Capitalism isn't it?

 

[PitPat]

Speaking of which, there is an industry for executive protection. Maybe they took the day off.

 

[arthwollipot]

Excuse me, stupid question from the back row, but....

Why does the CEO of a health insurance company need to be a heartless bastard?

Because you don't get to be a CEO unless you're a heartless bastard.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Because you don't get to be a CEO unless you're a heartless bastard.

Yeah but why? who elects you because of your bastard qualifications?
Is bastardtitude really the attribute that creates most stakeholder value?

Looks like US companies just keep on doing what lazy finance reporters want to hear, even if it coats billions in CEO compensation and lawsuits.

More fundamentally: why is anything in the general healthcare provider economy run for profit?

 

[arthwollipot]

No, but you won't do all of the ◊◊◊◊◊◊ things you need to do to advance and rise to the top of a major corporation unless you start with a fair amount of bastarditude.