AIBU to say I'm surprised a healthcare CEO hasn't been assassinated sooner?

[Chowtime]

Obviously what's happened in America with regard to Brian Thompson is awful but surely it was only a matter of time before someone revolted against their billionaire dollar profits and lack of payouts for individuals who've paid in for years.

Quick, execution style killing with a silencer. Apparently arrived by bus and stayed in a cheap hostel under a fake name.

It's Jack Reacher!

Joking aside, apparently the meeting that the guy was going to went ahead anyway, even though he'd just been shot dead in the street. The guy was apparently earning £10m a year while his company refused the most claims of any insurance company. Tells you a lot about the US medical insurance business.

With the amount of CCTV, would be extremely difficult to avoid being filmed, the food packaging is a bit odd though.

On this CEO's morals, he is no worse than company bosses over here, didn't we have energy companies forcibly fitting pre pay meters, taking the poor to court and cutting people off?
A pre payment meter is effectively making the consumer with no money, cut themselves off from energy.

The argument for this being "we can't expect people who do pay, to subsidise the feckless" an argument the CEO of a health insurance company would make too.

But even people who aren't "feckless" and pay their insurance then get their claims refused or the insurance companies delay so much that by the time it has been approved the treatment need has changed. It's a completely rigged system

Read up on health insurance in the US. This isn’t about people who can’t afford insurance- that’s a separate issue. This is about people who pay a big chunk of their income, year after year, for medical insurance for themselves and their families. When something happens and they actually need to use that insurance they’re told it won’t cover essential procedures, care or medication. I’m not talking about cutting edge, groundbreaking, experimental treatment. I’m talking about things that are considered routine. This isn’t about one insurer or one policy. It’s across all insurers.

Healthcare insurance is scammy. The same's happening in this country with pet insurance. They refuse to pay and owners are being left with thousands of pounds to pay to their vets. It's also pushed the cost of veterinary care up for everyone. I had to cancel my insurance because I found out it was a scammy one and they're practically insolvent now and just don't pay out.

The stress and upset must be massively higher if it's a human being though. Someone's been pushed over the edge I think. You live by the sword, you die by the sword I suppose. This CEO pushed his luck and this is the consequence. Tough, but understandable if this shooter has lost a family member or something.

Here's an example of an provider trying to push even further down that road with time limits on anaesthetic insurance (so if your surgery lasts longer than anticipated, tough shit): https://www.wfsb.com/2024/12/05/anthem-backtracks-anesthesiology-cap-policy-ct/

That was rowed back on yesterday. Looks like some people have had the frighteners put up them.

I take quite a dim view of the insurance industry as a whole.

Admittedly I did have a good experience with Aviva travel insurance who reimbursed me the whole 3K I asked for minus £100 excess after I had to cancel my holiday when I was struggling with post viral fatigue from covid.

However I was with Axa health insurance for years and they were awful. I didn’t use them much as I’m in good health never required any surgery or hospital admissions etc. just used the private GP a couple of times for hayfever meds and one 2 week sick note.

Had rude dismissive staff every time I tried to see a specialist to do with my joints though . As someone who (so far) is in reasonably good health except my minor sport related injuries and a few other ailments I decided it wasn’t worth it.

I ended my insurance with them earlier this year and I’m £80 a month richer.

I recently heard that a month and daughter from the Uk were screwed over by their travel insurance - visiting the States, the mum got badly injured in an accident.

She was in some kind of intensive care and because her travel insurance want the cheapest option they are requesting she be moved from the US to the UK.

The specialists there have said this could harm the mums long term chances of recovery if she is moved too soon but the insurance company said they need her to be moved to a UK hospital yesterday basically or they will stop paying for her care in the US.

The daughter created such a stink on social media they’ve now backtracked and said they’re now looking at all the options and consulting with specialists blah blah

But thats my point, all these companies etc rip us off and cause pain and suffering, even death, look at the scandals in childrens services, where private companies provide terrible care whilst making huge profits per child.

This guy is no different from many company bosses around the world, inc in the UK, all they want is money & they really don't give a xxxx how or who they get it from.

I don't know what part he has played in non or partial claims payouts but it does look like he was on borrowed time.

One of the competitors reversed a policy on arbitrary anaesthetic payments the day after this happened…

Other forums are drawing a link

I wonder if he had to watch a family member die due to insurance issues and wanted his family to suffer the same?

Engraved shell cases - expect a beloved family member was treated very badly by this firm. Should help narrow down the search to just a few tens of millions of claims by this firm?

Hired assassin though, surely?

Talented amateur? Professional shouldn't have left fingerprints and DNA at Starbucks unless that's a diversion. Engraved shell cases might mean an amateur though client could have asked assassin to use engraved shell cases though better not to leave shell cases at the scene. Revolver or otherwise catch them would remove that source of forensics.

I think there is something interesting about the difference between what is legal and what is criminal. In my view, much of the work the healthcare insurance industry does in the US is criminal. However, it is of course within the law. The informal definition of criminal is 'deplorable or shocking.' I would agree that would be applied here. I think too that a lot of what is now happening in the UK is criminal according to that definition. Private equity houses buying up social care and mental health facilities from the NHS because they can reduce the quality of care while maximising profits is not illegal but, in my view, is criminal. I am not suggesting of course that extreme measures should be taken! However, I think it's time we apply a moral lens to the people who lead these deals, who should be called out publicly and made to feel shame. I know there are different arguments here about how things should be funded but I also think some things are just not that nuanced. Private equity houses asset stripping public services in the UK are just wrong, as are their leaders.

As a lifelong pacifist, this assassination has changed one of my most deeply held beliefs. I’ve realised that as opposed as I am to the industry of murder committed by our governments by our armies, I’m actually not opposed to all form of violence committed by individuals.

The reasons I’m against militarism are entirely logical - I don’t believe in people outsourcing their moral decisions to organisations/higher powers, I don’t believe in individuals being seen in terms of resource, I don’t like how militarism encourages an us and them mentality or how legal, diplomatic negotiation is quickly abandoned in favour of aggression.

None of these values really apply to assassination attempts. In this case, where there is clearly an imbalance of power and a lack of resolution through legal channels, I am all for the serving of a violent comeuppance. I am all for billionaires being forced to take accountability for their actions, and if the only way to bring this is through violence, then so be it.

I remember reading about the transcendentalist movement, back in the 1800’s and how they believed that organisations allow people to behave in morally corrupt, dehumanising. In ways that people do not behave in when they interact as individuals. This idea really struck a cord with me and I see it everywhere! The way people are treated by gov organisations, insurance companies, even by call centres - it’s almost as if being an organisation excuses the need to treat people as people. It justifies apathy towards individual suffering. I’m glad people are beginning to push back against this.

I have a question about the three part slogan written on the bullets though. I love a catchy, three word slogan but was this intended to be longer? If the gun jammed, then we’re there more bullets, with more words? Was this the intended order of the message? Like, id this the order the assassin shot them into the ‘victim’?

So interesting @Icannoteven

Can we refer to this as the banality of evil? Hannah Arendt and then Zygmont Bauman in particular wrote about this - with reference to the holocaust specifically, but the principle of ordinary people committing evil acts while 'simply' doing their jobs obviously travels. There are, of course, difficulties with this including who adjudicates on where we draw the line? Where is the distinction from mob justice? I guess there's a big difference between (moral) accountability and assassination. We can and should aim for a lot more of the former.

That CEO was getting $10m a year, at 50 years old. Thats what’s wrong with the US healthcare system. People making millions out of others misery.

Keep all this firmly in mind when anyone with an interest in privatising the NHS bids at the ballet box at the next election. There are plenty of them, often not so easy to spot.

@Icannoteven I missed your post pre-deletion. Are you able to reword it in a way that doesn't breach the guidelines? I know @cyrkus found it interesting.

$10m a year and more than $40m in company stock.

Total US lobbying spend by health insurers exceeds $1bn annually to try to ensure no changes to a deeply flawed system adversely impact on their revenue model.

I don’t think I can reword it without it getting deleted, unfortunately as it was really just a list of organisations/people I hoped be held accountable in a similar way 😂

Oh, interesting. I haven’t heard about Hannah Arendt or zygmont bowman but I will add them to my reading list.

I am in the US. I ended up completely disabled because an insurance company refused to permit an MRI that would have diagnosed an issue that was treatable. It wasn't Unitedhealthcare. But I'm unphased by this happening. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner.

I find it useful to subdivide "the banality of evil" into those who enact harmful policies on behalf of the state (the Home Office over the past decade certainly counts, and it's essentially the basic conceptual MO of a police force) and those who enact harmful policies because it's the logic of their societal system (capitalism, in this case, which would apply to Brian Thompson).

But the thing that underlies my lack of sympathy in this case is the fact that in all those cases accountability isn't possible without revolution, because the harm enacted is a feature of the system, not a bug.