Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,314
Is this thread still about Obama Care? Suggestion: either update the title of this thread or start a general U.S. Healthcare system thread.
Thoughts?
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
While ACA is not perfect it has helped millions of uninsured Americans! Republicans more importantly Trumpolinni don’t have a fucking clue how to create a healthcare plan that can be better than ACA! A concept is nothing more than a thought and millions voted for an idiot that has been promising a better much better plan than ACA since 2016
While ACA is not perfect it has helped millions of uninsured Americans! Republicans more importantly Trumpolinni don’t have a fucking clue how to create a healthcare plan that can be better than ACA! A concept is nothing more than a thought and millions voted for an idiot that has been promising a better much better plan than ACA since 2016
Over
the course of my career in journalism, I have certainly seen news
stories take surprising turns. But the murder of a health insurance
executive on the streets of New York is something different. The killing
by a coward, ambushing from behind, collectively shocked and disgusted
many of us. As it should have.
But
what has suddenly grabbed much of the country by the lapels is the
support shown not for the victim, but for the man accused of committing
the crime. With that support, we are witnessing an undercurrent of
anger, even rage, come to the surface. It is directed squarely at an
American business model that is, according to many policyholders,
screwing us over every single day.
Violence
cannot and should not be condoned, especially cold-blooded murder. It
should be condemned, and the person who did it made to pay the maximum
penalty under law. Period. Full stop. Beyond that, we as a nation, as a
society, as a people are forced to recognize this: The lack of sympathy
for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the glorification
of his alleged killer has opened a window into the frustrated psyche of
the American health insurance consumer. It is a window that we ignore at
our peril.
If
you haven’t been following this closely, here’s the quick backstory: On
the morning of Wednesday, December 4, Thompson was shot in the back and
killed in midtown Manhattan on his way to an investor meeting. The
shooter inscribed the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” on the shell
casings found at the scene.
Some
of those words appear in the title of Jay Feinman’s book about the
health insurance industry, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies
Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The killer’s etched
words have become a rallying cry for many Americans who are hurting —
physically, emotionally, and financially — under the current system. In
these days after the murder, you can buy online merchandise like mugs
and sweatshirts adorned with “delay, deny, depose.”
The
man now charged with Thompson’s murder is 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,
an Ivy League graduate who allegedly dropped a backpack full of Monopoly
money in Central Park as he fled the scene on a rented electric bike,
according to police. He was able to escape the city on a bus.
Authorities arrested him on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona,
Pennsylvania, after a patron recognized him.
In the ensuing five days, Mangione was vaunted as a modern-day folk hero and a 21st century Robin Hood.
What
gives? Americans are good-hearted people. With that having been said,
we are now witnessing a groundswell that knows no boundaries. It is red
and blue, men and women, coast to coast — folks who have collectively
had it with corporate health care.
Much
of the online reaction to Thompson’s murder was morbid glee. The
UnitedHealthcare Facebook page had to be taken down after a post about
the CEO’s death received more than 36,000 laughing reactions, according
to The New Yorker.
Things
weren’t better on X, where 6 of 10 posts about the crime were in
support of the shooter. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family.
Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network,” one person posted. “My
only question is did the CEO of UnitedHealthcare die quickly or over
several months waiting to find out if his insurance would cover his
treatment for the fatal gunshot wound?” posted another.
Author
Joyce Carol Oates put it well with her social media post. The
outpouring of negativity “is better described as cries from the heart of
a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of
Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a
single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire
executives,” she wrote.
The
phenomenon of a person operating outside of the law to deliver justice
in what is perceived as an unjust world has been called social banditry.
“When people lose faith in the state’s ability to address their
concerns and grievances, they sometimes look to outlaws who offer
themselves as an alternative,” Joshua Zeitz wrote in Politico Magazine.
In the eyes of many, Luigi Mangione has become that alternative.
This
unnerving reaction to Thompson’s murder and murderer was born of
unbridled frustration with a failing system. The American health
insurance “system” is a misnomer. It implies that it was intentionally
designed. In truth, coverage in the United States entails a messy
patchwork of private insurance companies covering 65% of those insured
and government-funded insurance (Medicare and Medicaid) covering the
other 35%.
Senator
Bernie Sanders is a proponent of health care for all provided by the
federal government. What we have “is a system not designed to provide
health care to all people in a cost-effective way,” Sanders said of the
current setup. “It is a system designed to make huge profits for the
insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries
within the system.”
Most of those private insurance companies are publicly traded entities whose primary goal is to make money. And boy, do they.
Last
year, UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurance company in the
country, made $16 billion in profit. To boost profits even further a
company must reduce costs. The easiest way for insurance companies to do
so is to deny coverage. UnitedHealthcare, which has one of the highest
denial rates in the industry, turns down about a third of all claims.
Shockingly
to me, many health insurance companies — UnitedHealthcare among them —
outsource the decision-making of approving or denying coverage to third
parties that use AI-generated algorithms to make life-and-death
judgements. According to reporting by ProPublica, this hidden cottage
industry works by a “denials for dollars” model. The more they deny, the
more they get paid.
It
is no wonder people are infuriated and some are praising a self-styled
vigilante who claimed he was trying to do something about it.
A
2023 Gallup poll found that just 31% of Americans trust the U.S. health
csare system. One in 4 report delaying or foregoing medical treatment
because of cost. While the Affordable Care Act has improved things,
adding 45 million people to the insurance rolls, an estimated 23% of
these are still underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough coverage.
Wouldn’t
it be great if we had politicians who had the guts to do something
about this mess? Health care lobbyists have spent more than $150 million
to keep Congress in line.
And
now we have Donald Trump and his bevy of billionaires, including the
world’s richest man, looking to cut costs. Elon Musk says he may
consider Social Security and Medicare as possible places to find
savings.
The
system can be fixed, but it would take elected officials willing to
have the government do more, not less, at least when it comes to health
care. Anybody think that sounds like Trump, et al.?
If
you need a place to vent your frustrations, our comments section is
always open. You will find a lot of support here, not from trained
medical professionals, but from fellow citizens who have suffered from a
health care system that seems designed to deny. You will be heard.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Over
the course of my career in journalism, I have certainly seen news
stories take surprising turns. But the murder of a health insurance
executive on the streets of New York is something different. The killing
by a coward, ambushing from behind, collectively shocked and disgusted
many of us. As it should have.
But
what has suddenly grabbed much of the country by the lapels is the
support shown not for the victim, but for the man accused of committing
the crime. With that support, we are witnessing an undercurrent of
anger, even rage, come to the surface. It is directed squarely at an
American business model that is, according to many policyholders,
screwing us over every single day.
Violence
cannot and should not be condoned, especially cold-blooded murder. It
should be condemned, and the person who did it made to pay the maximum
penalty under law. Period. Full stop. Beyond that, we as a nation, as a
society, as a people are forced to recognize this: The lack of sympathy
for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the glorification
of his alleged killer has opened a window into the frustrated psyche of
the American health insurance consumer. It is a window that we ignore at
our peril.
If
you haven’t been following this closely, here’s the quick backstory: On
the morning of Wednesday, December 4, Thompson was shot in the back and
killed in midtown Manhattan on his way to an investor meeting. The
shooter inscribed the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” on the shell
casings found at the scene.
Some
of those words appear in the title of Jay Feinman’s book about the
health insurance industry, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies
Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The killer’s etched
words have become a rallying cry for many Americans who are hurting —
physically, emotionally, and financially — under the current system. In
these days after the murder, you can buy online merchandise like mugs
and sweatshirts adorned with “delay, deny, depose.”
The
man now charged with Thompson’s murder is 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,
an Ivy League graduate who allegedly dropped a backpack full of Monopoly
money in Central Park as he fled the scene on a rented electric bike,
according to police. He was able to escape the city on a bus.
Authorities arrested him on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona,
Pennsylvania, after a patron recognized him.
In the ensuing five days, Mangione was vaunted as a modern-day folk hero and a 21st century Robin Hood.
What
gives? Americans are good-hearted people. With that having been said,
we are now witnessing a groundswell that knows no boundaries. It is red
and blue, men and women, coast to coast — folks who have collectively
had it with corporate health care.
Much
of the online reaction to Thompson’s murder was morbid glee. The
UnitedHealthcare Facebook page had to be taken down after a post about
the CEO’s death received more than 36,000 laughing reactions, according
to The New Yorker.
Things
weren’t better on X, where 6 of 10 posts about the crime were in
support of the shooter. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family.
Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network,” one person posted. “My
only question is did the CEO of UnitedHealthcare die quickly or over
several months waiting to find out if his insurance would cover his
treatment for the fatal gunshot wound?” posted another.
Author
Joyce Carol Oates put it well with her social media post. The
outpouring of negativity “is better described as cries from the heart of
a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of
Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a
single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire
executives,” she wrote.
The
phenomenon of a person operating outside of the law to deliver justice
in what is perceived as an unjust world has been called social banditry.
“When people lose faith in the state’s ability to address their
concerns and grievances, they sometimes look to outlaws who offer
themselves as an alternative,” Joshua Zeitz wrote in Politico Magazine.
In the eyes of many, Luigi Mangione has become that alternative.
This
unnerving reaction to Thompson’s murder and murderer was born of
unbridled frustration with a failing system. The American health
insurance “system” is a misnomer. It implies that it was intentionally
designed. In truth, coverage in the United States entails a messy
patchwork of private insurance companies covering 65% of those insured
and government-funded insurance (Medicare and Medicaid) covering the
other 35%.
Senator
Bernie Sanders is a proponent of health care for all provided by the
federal government. What we have “is a system not designed to provide
health care to all people in a cost-effective way,” Sanders said of the
current setup. “It is a system designed to make huge profits for the
insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries
within the system.”
Most of those private insurance companies are publicly traded entities whose primary goal is to make money. And boy, do they.
Last
year, UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurance company in the
country, made $16 billion in profit. To boost profits even further a
company must reduce costs. The easiest way for insurance companies to do
so is to deny coverage. UnitedHealthcare, which has one of the highest
denial rates in the industry, turns down about a third of all claims.
Shockingly
to me, many health insurance companies — UnitedHealthcare among them —
outsource the decision-making of approving or denying coverage to third
parties that use AI-generated algorithms to make life-and-death
judgements. According to reporting by ProPublica, this hidden cottage
industry works by a “denials for dollars” model. The more they deny, the
more they get paid.
It
is no wonder people are infuriated and some are praising a self-styled
vigilante who claimed he was trying to do something about it.
A
2023 Gallup poll found that just 31% of Americans trust the U.S. health
csare system. One in 4 report delaying or foregoing medical treatment
because of cost. While the Affordable Care Act has improved things,
adding 45 million people to the insurance rolls, an estimated 23% of
these are still underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough coverage.
Wouldn’t
it be great if we had politicians who had the guts to do something
about this mess? Health care lobbyists have spent more than $150 million
to keep Congress in line.
And
now we have Donald Trump and his bevy of billionaires, including the
world’s richest man, looking to cut costs. Elon Musk says he may
consider Social Security and Medicare as possible places to find
savings.
The
system can be fixed, but it would take elected officials willing to
have the government do more, not less, at least when it comes to health
care. Anybody think that sounds like Trump, et al.?
If
you need a place to vent your frustrations, our comments section is
always open. You will find a lot of support here, not from trained
medical professionals, but from fellow citizens who have suffered from a
health care system that seems designed to deny. You will be heard.
Do “good hearted” people elect someone like POOTWH and his appointees to represent them? Are “good hearted” people generally okay with billionaires gutting and slashing programs and enriching themselves via the tax cuts to come? Do “good hearted” people find the “other” to scapegoat and blame the nation’s problems on? Dan might want rethink what the American people are.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,314
Over
the course of my career in journalism, I have certainly seen news
stories take surprising turns. But the murder of a health insurance
executive on the streets of New York is something different. The killing
by a coward, ambushing from behind, collectively shocked and disgusted
many of us. As it should have.
But
what has suddenly grabbed much of the country by the lapels is the
support shown not for the victim, but for the man accused of committing
the crime. With that support, we are witnessing an undercurrent of
anger, even rage, come to the surface. It is directed squarely at an
American business model that is, according to many policyholders,
screwing us over every single day.
Violence
cannot and should not be condoned, especially cold-blooded murder. It
should be condemned, and the person who did it made to pay the maximum
penalty under law. Period. Full stop. Beyond that, we as a nation, as a
society, as a people are forced to recognize this: The lack of sympathy
for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the glorification
of his alleged killer has opened a window into the frustrated psyche of
the American health insurance consumer. It is a window that we ignore at
our peril.
If
you haven’t been following this closely, here’s the quick backstory: On
the morning of Wednesday, December 4, Thompson was shot in the back and
killed in midtown Manhattan on his way to an investor meeting. The
shooter inscribed the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” on the shell
casings found at the scene.
Some
of those words appear in the title of Jay Feinman’s book about the
health insurance industry, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies
Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The killer’s etched
words have become a rallying cry for many Americans who are hurting —
physically, emotionally, and financially — under the current system. In
these days after the murder, you can buy online merchandise like mugs
and sweatshirts adorned with “delay, deny, depose.”
The
man now charged with Thompson’s murder is 26-year-old Luigi Mangione,
an Ivy League graduate who allegedly dropped a backpack full of Monopoly
money in Central Park as he fled the scene on a rented electric bike,
according to police. He was able to escape the city on a bus.
Authorities arrested him on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona,
Pennsylvania, after a patron recognized him.
In the ensuing five days, Mangione was vaunted as a modern-day folk hero and a 21st century Robin Hood.
What
gives? Americans are good-hearted people. With that having been said,
we are now witnessing a groundswell that knows no boundaries. It is red
and blue, men and women, coast to coast — folks who have collectively
had it with corporate health care.
Much
of the online reaction to Thompson’s murder was morbid glee. The
UnitedHealthcare Facebook page had to be taken down after a post about
the CEO’s death received more than 36,000 laughing reactions, according
to The New Yorker.
Things
weren’t better on X, where 6 of 10 posts about the crime were in
support of the shooter. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family.
Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network,” one person posted. “My
only question is did the CEO of UnitedHealthcare die quickly or over
several months waiting to find out if his insurance would cover his
treatment for the fatal gunshot wound?” posted another.
Author
Joyce Carol Oates put it well with her social media post. The
outpouring of negativity “is better described as cries from the heart of
a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of
Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a
single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire
executives,” she wrote.
The
phenomenon of a person operating outside of the law to deliver justice
in what is perceived as an unjust world has been called social banditry.
“When people lose faith in the state’s ability to address their
concerns and grievances, they sometimes look to outlaws who offer
themselves as an alternative,” Joshua Zeitz wrote in Politico Magazine.
In the eyes of many, Luigi Mangione has become that alternative.
This
unnerving reaction to Thompson’s murder and murderer was born of
unbridled frustration with a failing system. The American health
insurance “system” is a misnomer. It implies that it was intentionally
designed. In truth, coverage in the United States entails a messy
patchwork of private insurance companies covering 65% of those insured
and government-funded insurance (Medicare and Medicaid) covering the
other 35%.
Senator
Bernie Sanders is a proponent of health care for all provided by the
federal government. What we have “is a system not designed to provide
health care to all people in a cost-effective way,” Sanders said of the
current setup. “It is a system designed to make huge profits for the
insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries
within the system.”
Most of those private insurance companies are publicly traded entities whose primary goal is to make money. And boy, do they.
Last
year, UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurance company in the
country, made $16 billion in profit. To boost profits even further a
company must reduce costs. The easiest way for insurance companies to do
so is to deny coverage. UnitedHealthcare, which has one of the highest
denial rates in the industry, turns down about a third of all claims.
Shockingly
to me, many health insurance companies — UnitedHealthcare among them —
outsource the decision-making of approving or denying coverage to third
parties that use AI-generated algorithms to make life-and-death
judgements. According to reporting by ProPublica, this hidden cottage
industry works by a “denials for dollars” model. The more they deny, the
more they get paid.
It
is no wonder people are infuriated and some are praising a self-styled
vigilante who claimed he was trying to do something about it.
A
2023 Gallup poll found that just 31% of Americans trust the U.S. health
csare system. One in 4 report delaying or foregoing medical treatment
because of cost. While the Affordable Care Act has improved things,
adding 45 million people to the insurance rolls, an estimated 23% of
these are still underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough coverage.
Wouldn’t
it be great if we had politicians who had the guts to do something
about this mess? Health care lobbyists have spent more than $150 million
to keep Congress in line.
And
now we have Donald Trump and his bevy of billionaires, including the
world’s richest man, looking to cut costs. Elon Musk says he may
consider Social Security and Medicare as possible places to find
savings.
The
system can be fixed, but it would take elected officials willing to
have the government do more, not less, at least when it comes to health
care. Anybody think that sounds like Trump, et al.?
If
you need a place to vent your frustrations, our comments section is
always open. You will find a lot of support here, not from trained
medical professionals, but from fellow citizens who have suffered from a
health care system that seems designed to deny. You will be heard.
Do “good hearted” people elect someone like POOTWH and his appointees to represent them? Are “good hearted” people generally okay with billionaires gutting and slashing programs and enriching themselves via the tax cuts to come? Do “good hearted” people find the “other” to scapegoat and blame the nation’s problems on? Dan might want rethink what the American people are.
Well, first of all, less than half of voters voted for the Felon. So we can't judge by that.
So are people who voted for the Felon "good hearted"? I don't know, but their candidate sure isn't. Have many of the people who might otherwise be good hearted people but who made a poor choice and voted for 47 because they believed lies and were duped? Absolutely.
Besides, how long would people continue to read Mr. Rather's comments if he referred to the American people as "evil", "hateful", "cruel", "barbaric", etc.? Dan Rather does not stoop to the low level and general mood that often characterizes a place like AMT.
Post edited by brianlux on
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
And what does it have to do with ACA? Why don’t you tell us how the 🤡 will put forth a healthcare plan that will be better than ACA he’s only been promising it since 2015 it’s 2024 and all he can come up with is a concept 🤣🤣🤣
Comments
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
It all goes back to Ruppert Murdochs cookies!
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
Rage Against the System
Murder, money, and Americans who are mad as hell
Over the course of my career in journalism, I have certainly seen news stories take surprising turns. But the murder of a health insurance executive on the streets of New York is something different. The killing by a coward, ambushing from behind, collectively shocked and disgusted many of us. As it should have.
But what has suddenly grabbed much of the country by the lapels is the support shown not for the victim, but for the man accused of committing the crime. With that support, we are witnessing an undercurrent of anger, even rage, come to the surface. It is directed squarely at an American business model that is, according to many policyholders, screwing us over every single day.
Violence cannot and should not be condoned, especially cold-blooded murder. It should be condemned, and the person who did it made to pay the maximum penalty under law. Period. Full stop. Beyond that, we as a nation, as a society, as a people are forced to recognize this: The lack of sympathy for murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the glorification of his alleged killer has opened a window into the frustrated psyche of the American health insurance consumer. It is a window that we ignore at our peril.
If you haven’t been following this closely, here’s the quick backstory: On the morning of Wednesday, December 4, Thompson was shot in the back and killed in midtown Manhattan on his way to an investor meeting. The shooter inscribed the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” on the shell casings found at the scene.
Some of those words appear in the title of Jay Feinman’s book about the health insurance industry, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The killer’s etched words have become a rallying cry for many Americans who are hurting — physically, emotionally, and financially — under the current system. In these days after the murder, you can buy online merchandise like mugs and sweatshirts adorned with “delay, deny, depose.”
The man now charged with Thompson’s murder is 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League graduate who allegedly dropped a backpack full of Monopoly money in Central Park as he fled the scene on a rented electric bike, according to police. He was able to escape the city on a bus. Authorities arrested him on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a patron recognized him.
In the ensuing five days, Mangione was vaunted as a modern-day folk hero and a 21st century Robin Hood.
What gives? Americans are good-hearted people. With that having been said, we are now witnessing a groundswell that knows no boundaries. It is red and blue, men and women, coast to coast — folks who have collectively had it with corporate health care.
Much of the online reaction to Thompson’s murder was morbid glee. The UnitedHealthcare Facebook page had to be taken down after a post about the CEO’s death received more than 36,000 laughing reactions, according to The New Yorker.
Things weren’t better on X, where 6 of 10 posts about the crime were in support of the shooter. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family. Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network,” one person posted. “My only question is did the CEO of UnitedHealthcare die quickly or over several months waiting to find out if his insurance would cover his treatment for the fatal gunshot wound?” posted another.
Author Joyce Carol Oates put it well with her social media post. The outpouring of negativity “is better described as cries from the heart of a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire executives,” she wrote.
The phenomenon of a person operating outside of the law to deliver justice in what is perceived as an unjust world has been called social banditry. “When people lose faith in the state’s ability to address their concerns and grievances, they sometimes look to outlaws who offer themselves as an alternative,” Joshua Zeitz wrote in Politico Magazine.
In the eyes of many, Luigi Mangione has become that alternative.
This unnerving reaction to Thompson’s murder and murderer was born of unbridled frustration with a failing system. The American health insurance “system” is a misnomer. It implies that it was intentionally designed. In truth, coverage in the United States entails a messy patchwork of private insurance companies covering 65% of those insured and government-funded insurance (Medicare and Medicaid) covering the other 35%.
Senator Bernie Sanders is a proponent of health care for all provided by the federal government. What we have “is a system not designed to provide health care to all people in a cost-effective way,” Sanders said of the current setup. “It is a system designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries within the system.”
Most of those private insurance companies are publicly traded entities whose primary goal is to make money. And boy, do they.
Last year, UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurance company in the country, made $16 billion in profit. To boost profits even further a company must reduce costs. The easiest way for insurance companies to do so is to deny coverage. UnitedHealthcare, which has one of the highest denial rates in the industry, turns down about a third of all claims.
Shockingly to me, many health insurance companies — UnitedHealthcare among them — outsource the decision-making of approving or denying coverage to third parties that use AI-generated algorithms to make life-and-death judgements. According to reporting by ProPublica, this hidden cottage industry works by a “denials for dollars” model. The more they deny, the more they get paid.
It is no wonder people are infuriated and some are praising a self-styled vigilante who claimed he was trying to do something about it.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that just 31% of Americans trust the U.S. health csare system. One in 4 report delaying or foregoing medical treatment because of cost. While the Affordable Care Act has improved things, adding 45 million people to the insurance rolls, an estimated 23% of these are still underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough coverage.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had politicians who had the guts to do something about this mess? Health care lobbyists have spent more than $150 million to keep Congress in line.
And now we have Donald Trump and his bevy of billionaires, including the world’s richest man, looking to cut costs. Elon Musk says he may consider Social Security and Medicare as possible places to find savings.
The system can be fixed, but it would take elected officials willing to have the government do more, not less, at least when it comes to health care. Anybody think that sounds like Trump, et al.?
If you need a place to vent your frustrations, our comments section is always open. You will find a lot of support here, not from trained medical professionals, but from fellow citizens who have suffered from a health care system that seems designed to deny. You will be heard.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Edit: with a woman