Summary
The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has ignited outrage over the state of U.S. healthcare.
While his murder shocked many, online reactions highlighted public frustration with private insurers, citing denied care, high costs, and systemic bureaucracy.
UnitedHealthcare, a major industry player, has faced scrutiny for practices perceived as prioritizing profit over patients.
The attack, which appears premeditated, underscores rising tensions around healthcare inequality.
Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes, reflecting deep dissatisfaction with the American healthcare system.
lol … Private health care sends thousands or even millions to an early death and no one says anything or cares for a moment
One CEO gets killed and now we start asking questions about the state of private health care
This situation is proving at least some of a joke I heard somewhere once:
“If you took all the top CEOs of all the biggest corporations and gave them cancer, we would have 37 different cures in a month, tops.”
They would have*
We don’t get shit.
Didn’t work for that Apple guy.
He didn’t believe in medicine
Soon private is all we have with Trump coming into office. Goodbye ACTA/ObamaCare
Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes, reflecting
deep dissatisfaction withanger at the blatant corruption of the American healthcare system.FTFY
That belies the shock also generated by the brutality of Thompson’s death.
It wasn’t brutal. He died with no fear and very quickly. That’s a lot better than many of the patients his company denied coverage for can say.
The news anchors / article writer had to say that because otherwise they get fired.
And, by nature of the corrupt system, lose their health insurance
People aren’t shocked by his death. We’re at the very least unsympathetic. And many of us are positively giddy.
As much as I share the majority’s sentiment about this situation, I think he may have died with fear. If you see the uncensored video, he turns around and faces the shooter after the first shot. That explains why they say he was shot in the chest even though he appeared to be shot from behind. I guess the first shot was to the leg and the second to the chest. It’s also possible that he died too quickly to experience fear, even though he got to face his assassin.
Wait, let’s see… I have to spend hundreds of dollars a month so when I get sick or injured, I have to pay hundreds of dollars upfront to meet a requirement to still pay a large portion of the bill. All so some mediocre guy with excessive wealth can buy another yacht. My health is a commodity to them. And I’m supposed to give ANY fucks when it all goes wrong for them? Did that dude spare even a moment to think about the people choosing a slow agonizing death to spare their family a life of medical debt? This man ran a racket that paid for his vacations with people’s lives, and now it’s come back to bite him (to death). I ain’t mad.
UnitedHealthcare, a major industry player, has faced scrutiny for practices perceived as prioritizing profit over patients.
Perceived? Of course they prioritize profit over patients. They, along with every other capitalist firm, must prioritize profit over every other consideration. Everything is secondary to maximum, ever increasing profits.
Disgusting narrative. The violence in this story was mostly committed by the CEO. Its his violence that we must be talking about
While his murder shocked many
His murder shocked literally nobody.
The shocking thing is it doesn’t happen more often tbh.
It’s like that scene in Fight Club that discusses the homework of starting a fight. It’s difficult because the majority of people, are not wired that way. And that is a good thing.
Maybe the would-be school shooters will see this response online and find a healthier outlet for their angst.
It shocked people like him
We’re still waiting on his word as to how shocked he was at the time.
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Maybe you shouldn’t have an accountant in charge of a “healthcare” company.
I’m sorry for the multiple comments. I have a lot of background and trauma related to dealing with health insurance companies. They are parasites sucking out the blood of those who can least afford it and ruining their lives when they can’t pay the bills left over after they deny claims.
Healthcare companies should only be allowed to operate under non-profit rules.
There should be no incentive for profit on people’s health.
And forced to publicly report every thousandth of a cent. And their current administrators charged with crimes against humanity.
And the thing is, the “trade” they inflict is just so amazingly unreasonable. The incredible misery they cause, replicated over so many people, and for truly no greater purpose than keeping up with the perverse status symbol competition amongst their hideous peers. Absolutely wild, unhinged, clearly malignant behavior.
Parasites at least play an important role in their ecosystems. I have no (or too many) words to describe my hatred for people like this that commit social murder all the time.
This isn’t reddit. Its not an issue to segment comments logicly
Curiously, successive governments in the UK (where The Guardian is based) have been slowly destroying the National Health Service.
The same thing has been happening in some Canadian provinces where there are conservative governments.
Isn’t it ironic to call them conservative as they are trying to up-end the status quo?
Comically enough, it is they who are trying to force through more liberal laws for companies which will ultimately cost the common person more.
Not sure I followed your entire meaning, but your comment is funny, because when I wrote “conservative” it left a sour taste in my mouth.
I think modern conservatives are regressive, liberals are conservative and progressives or leftists are progressive.
So yes, “conservative” parties in Canada are trying to dismantle our health care system (i.e., regress).
And the “liberal” parties aren’t doing much to save it. It’s hard to justify spending money on it when those same funds could go to private interests instead.
And the actual progressive parties don’t get elected unless you’re in BC and incompetence still fucks things up anyway.
I know what you mean, I was just discussing the variance within the terminology.
It’s strange that conservatives call progressives progressive in the first place, because a true conservative would be trying to conserve what was there, and a progressive would be trying to create progress. Thus it is open admittance for them to call the other party progressive and be against it… Yet not think they are standing in the way of betterment. If they believed moving left was wrong they would call it regressive as well. But what hits as well is what you acknowledge as regressive, which is why I don’t call MAGA conservatives, because they aren’t. They are farther right than our country has ever been. They are trying to ratchet our country further right… Towards what? A kingdom/dictatorship is the only thing right of our past time. Makes me think they confused their red hats for coats, and want the British Empire. Maybe that’s why Trump made the dumb joke about Canada becoming a state.
After all, nothing says let’s conserve what we have, than saying we should get rid of 75% of government agencies.
The MAGA slogan itself tells you that they are regressive. They want to go back to something else (that was great).
And by shifting the Overton Window hard the the right, they are turning “progressive” into a slur. Helping them with that is attacking social issues like LGBTQ+, because simple people with simple lives don’t give a fuck about social issues and REGRESSIVES weaponize that and turn it into a culture war (while somehow saying PROGRESSIVEs created the culture war?). Supporting human rights has become a poison pill placed BY REGRESSIVES for anyone who has some human decency.
I wish we could just call the apple an apple and say fascists, liberals, and progressives. But nobody knows what political words mean anymore, and this is the fault of the political class watering down or outright misnaming things. The regressives want to go back to a time where things were better. This time is a fucking fiction. I want to go to where a single income could buy a house and a car, with much less racism and sexism, but that’s not what they want.
Oh, I see the same think in my native Portugal.
As I see it (having left it a year or so before Brexit came into effect) Britain is maybe 10 years ahead of the rest of Europe on the path towards Neoliberal Dystopia (you see it too in other things like Press capture, surveillance society and even the house price inflation.), so some of the social, economic and political problems I see now unfolding in Portugal, I saw in Britain years ago when I lived there.
Britain seem to be trying hard to converge with the US, but only on the bad things rather than the good ones.
Yes, the Tory plan for the NHS is a sibling of the American “starve the beast” model where you make it hard for a public service to function effectively then go “see it doesn’t work, it needs to be got rid of” when it inevitably has issues.
The end game is to privatise it, making money for tory mates in the process and removing yet another social benefit paid out of tax revenue.
The problem for the Tories is that even Tory voters love the NHS, so they can’t just privatise straight out it like they did everything else. They need to make a case for why, they need to break the British attachment, or at least get people to care less.
Be aware, if you’re not, that stealth privatisation has already been done through outsourcing mandates. This increases costs (because the outsourcer wants to make profits) rather than saving it, helping accelerate their case.
Its not the health care that is at fault. Its the useless insurance companies that degrade it. The practicing medical professionals are as a rule competent and engaged in their profession. The problems starts at the admin level of any medical organization and just get more inefficient the lower it goes in the chain.
It is actually just incredible just how medical insurance companies aren’t considered legally frauds.
It is actually just incredible just how
medicalfor profit insurance companies aren’t considered legally frauds.
… I would honestly say that it’s the whole system that is to be changed…
America’s pay the higher fees in terms of health care for one of the lowest amount of services…
As George Carlin said about elites, view the link from YouTube for more info : https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Pmo_zA8UAEA
I believe that MBA education in America has contributed too much to the degradation of society. Universities have failed society once more.
Universities are some of the very few places in the US where people are educated to be less dogmatic. This leads to less conservative, less religious people. But universities are now demonized as woke and expensive beyond the capacity of the working class.
On top of that, a four year degree isn’t worth what it used to be. I encourage any young people to go into the trades.
Experts see this as part of a broader trend toward violence over societal disputes
If you take away everything, at some point, people have nothing to lose
So far, i cant afford a house or a family. If i lost my partner, my only stability, to a treatable illness…
I wonder how many people in this country feel just like me
I’m guessing a lot of them.
There is no other way this ends. The corpos are so moneyblind that they don’t see it.
From FDR to ~1981 we invested in the creation of a middle class. Oh yes, the middle class was created by government subsidy. The 1950s was unique because the prosperous creation blasted into the American scene for the first time. It evolved from there, in part, because it was also being built on the backs of women being crushed into singular stifling roles. Go ahead, ask your boomer mom about her mom, how happy and sane and unmedicated she was. Outliers exist. But that piece is for another thread.
Subsidizing middle class began to be peeled away ~1981. Basically, the theory was, investing in the investors and corporate is simply more efficient, financially, and will trickle down to the rest of society. We’ve all felt the long term impact of that experiment and it’s not making anyone working class very happy.
2021, yea GramPOTUS started to peel back up pre1981. Have we felt it? Teamsters maybe in knowing they still have a retirement, but the truth of it is, breaking shit has lasting impact and turning it around will not be felt for a while.
I highly doubt 2025 will subsidize the middle class and try to get us back to pre-1981. But we will see.
My point is, this financial squeeze is the culmination of 40yrs of government policy. Bezos gets a penis rocket, we get lack of homes, healthcare debt, the inability to raise children due to costs, and a wonderful feeling of anxiety and anger.
Either way. 1950s or the present crushing situation: government created.
They shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction when they are actively doing this to THE WORLDS MOST WELL-ARMED POPULATION. What the fuck did they think would happen?
That thing about asking my mom about her mom. She wouldn’t be able to tell me much. My aunts and uncle are boomers, my mom is gen x. She was born 10 years after her youngest sibling so obviously a total accident.
Her mom shot herself when my mom was only 4 years old. So, yeah. You got it right.
Sympathy out of network
I like this headline because for once the “sparks outrage” cliche has some real meaning to it.
People have been mad about healthcare for ages. But it hasn’t lit up, it’s just sort of passively lingering like a gas leak. All it took was one snap to light the flames.
Anyway, I don’t condone violence but this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The rotten egg smell is everywhere and we’ve tried calling the gas department for decades and no one has come to help. If there are further victims of violence, the majority of the blood will be on the hands of the oppressive class who failed to protect themselves by treating their subordinates as human.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -JF damn K
Option 1: Vote for Democrats / vote for a woman for president to get incremental improvements to healthcare and society.
Americans: yawnOption 2: Start murdering the powerful capitalist oligarchs which will lead to zero improvements in healthcare and society but fuels fantasies of revenge and temporarily feels good.
Americans: “Yay!”Edit: I’m not even saying we need to pick just one option. But shouldn’t Option 1 also be “yay” if Option 2 is? Why limit how pressure is applied to just picking the violent option? It’s weird how even marches and unions get a lukewarm response compared to vigilantism.
And these replies I’m getting are interesting. I didn’t expect so many attempts to justify that only a violent option ever would do any good. Let’s say that violence is the most effective option. Does that really mean we don’t try any other options? If I was this inflexible in my day-to-day life, I’d never get anything done.
It’s like Richard Pryor said about crack:
Old white women see addicted kids in the ghetto and shrug “Well isn’t that terrible?”
Then crack arrives at their suburbs and they’re “OH MY GOD IT’S AN EPIDEMIC!”Start murdering the powerful capitalist oligarchs which will lead to zero improvements in healthcare and society
That implies a trend instead of a one off like this. A trend would absolutely ultimately lead to improvements. The oligarchy that rules us isn’t listening to polite letters and protests asking them to change.
But if they discover that their actions lead to great personal risk, they’ll quickly change their actions to avoid the risk. That means lower (fair) pay for the CEOs/stockholders. That means an end to the scamming they do through insurance. That means an end to price gouging in the grocery store.
The reason everything is shit (aside from the destruction of the middle class and housing crisis, which is itself caused by the oligarchy), is that the oligarchy is brazen and unafraid of risk in their wealth extraction.
Does that really mean we don’t try any other options?
That’s what we’ve been doing for the last two decades, and it’s got us basically nowhere.
That doesn’t rule out holding them accountable via a government that works for us. Having that (or working towards that) was too boring for Americans this time. But if we had that, I’m sure the rich would be at least as scared of government guns as you say they’d be of increased vigilante guns.
That doesn’t rule out holding them accountable via a government that works for us.
And how’s that worked out?
Could be better. Could be worse. Still think it’s worth trying in addition to anything else we try.
I’m OK with trying the peaceful option first/in addition. But it is quickly becoming apparent that it’s not enough.
I didn’t expect so many attempts to justify that only a violent option ever would do any good
USAmericans love violence. Look at their media, it’s full of it. They’d rather see a gun advert or a story of some school children getting shot than a naked boob.
What improvements did Democrats make in the past 4 years?
The last time a president made marginal improvements they introduced term limits to stop it happening again.
You couldn’t find anything?
- all-time low for uninsured
- unemployment has held below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s
- income increases began to outpace price increases
- cost of living is returning to its pre-pandemic level this year
- energy transition spending was $303 billion last year, a record and two-thirds higher than before Biden
- rise in real wages for lower-income workers lowers inequality
- violent crime is down
- $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems
- signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health
- $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
- college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year
- cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan
- capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act
- imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act
- rejoined the Paris Agreement
- gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending
- reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year
- signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins
- reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027
- halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze
- signed the Respect for Marriage Act, requiring the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories (though not tribes) to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States
- all-time low for uninsured
- unemployment has held below 4% for the longest stretch since the 1960s
- income increases began to outpace price increases
- cost of living is returning to its pre-pandemic level this year
- rise in real wages for lower-income workers lowers inequality
- violent crime is down
None of these are things they did directly
- energy transition spending was $303 billion last year, a record and two-thirds higher than before Biden
- $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
- rejoined the Paris Agreement
None of these directly help workers
- signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health
If it’s bipartisan then the democrats didn’t do it.
- college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year
only a small amount
- cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan
only for a short period of time
- capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act
For a very specific group
- imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act
Pretty sure this was because of a global treaty
- reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027
Keeping things the same isn’t a improvement
- halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze
Getting things back to how they were previously isn’t an improvement.
- $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems
- gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending
- reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year
- signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins
- signed the Respect for Marriage Act, requiring the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories (though not tribes) to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages in the United States
I don’t know enough about these to comment, on the surface they sound good but some are vague.
Well, he’s not a king or a wizard. It takes the whole government to get it done, and these were done under his administration.
yawn none of that matters if we destroy all life on earth with nuclear weapons. They’ve done nothing to address the existential theats
Bad faith argument right here. 🤡
Absolutely good faith. I care about existential threats. Dont greenwash away the real issues with a bullet point list of vomit to distract away from the real issues
Its not murder if we give them a trial before sending them to the guillotine
Sounds like going with Option 1 to me. Too boring for America though.
More like option 1 literally wasn’t an option on the paper. Stein was literally sued off many State’s ballots, unfortunately.
For option 1 to be achievable, first we need rank choice voting and abolition of the electoral college. I honestly dont understand why this didn’t pass in Colorado, except maybe successful disinformation campaigns.
Stein is a joke and a Russian puppet. If you want to throw your vote away vote for a leftist at least.
I see you fell for the Democratic party’s propaganda
Option 1’s incremental improvement to healthcare are negated by capitalism’s incremental exploitation of those “improvements.” They can fuck shit up faster than politics can fix it.
Option 2 ends in universal healthcare.
We didn’t even try Option 1 this time. It was too boring for most people to go out and vote. And then we had a vocal group decided to withhold votes based on their unbending principles.
I’m not holding my breath for Option 2 given we couldn’t even make Option 1 work. Since we’ve shown we can’t come together for each other, Option 2 is more likely to end in totalitarianism as the powerful react to the violence and/or in societal collapse as every person looks out only for himself.
We didn’t even try Option 1 this time.
What exactly the fuck do you think four years of Biden was?
last time; not this time
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Rita Mae Brown
And then the fucking neolibs wonder why Trump won.
Just because there are other options worth trying, doesn’t mean we should give up on also trying a peaceful option. If we elect better people, it’s not the same thing. If we strike, too, it’s not the same thing. Nonviolent interference is not doing the same thing. We can augment rather than abandon. It’s more complicated, harder, and requires cunning and patience rather than mere brute force. Nothing has a guaranteed result, not even violence—especially with GOP/MAGA in power. All of the tools are more effective when not under Republican rule.
lol. god people are trash. ‘suffer for longer because we want to take the HARDER route vs fixing the fucking problem.’ enjoy the violence you’ve mandated; its just a shame everyone else is going to have to suffer with you.
We didn’t even try Option 1 this time.
Option 1 was “maintain the status quo”. Continue to suck in exactly the same way that we have been sucking for the past 60+ years.
as every person looks out only for himself.
That’s called “Democracy”.
If it’s not obvious to you that things sucked in distinctly different ways under Democrat and GOP rule, I doubt I’ll be able to convince you. Not to mention, the stark difference this next administration has from anything we’ve seen before.
If you don’t think we’ve ever made progress in this country, or that the Biden administration made only maintained the status quo, I guess that’s fine. You do you. But that’s not the case from what I’ve seen.
I am interested in how democracy is every person looking out for themselves. I can agree that any societal system has to account for self-preservation, but democracy itself is, as far as I understand, a tool to channel individual instincts toward improving things for everyone.
If it’s not obvious to you that things sucked in distinctly different ways under Democrat and GOP rule
Sure. There are distinct differences between the two.
There are also distinct differences in the different ways things sucked in the 1920s. There are distinct differences in the way things sucked in the 1980s. The distinctions you are talking about are trivial compared to the distinctions across the decades.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans are currently interested in the kind of reforms necessary to address the oligarchs. The difference in suckiness between the two is certainly distinct, but relatively insignificant. We need to tackle the bigger problems; the problems that Harris wasn’t capable or even interested in solving. We know we need to tackle those problems, which is why someone unable and/or unwilling to look at them gets a yawn.
Option 2 gives us an optimistic electorate. That “Yay!” is exactly what we need. The most pressing issue we need to address is Reagan’s tax policies. So much is resolved when we restore the measures we used to destroy the robber barons.
I agree with most, but not all, of your understanding of our situation. Sounds like you want things to get better. I hope your efforts are successful.
I’ll allow it.
Harris didn’t promise incremental improvements though. In the days leading up to the election she only promised regression and stagnation.
I’m not sure where you got that idea. Did you not read her platform or listen to her speak?
Did you not notice how democrats helped republicans shift the overton window further and further towards regressivism? There was never any incremental improvement, just concessions made to distract you from how both parties serve the same masters.
You and I don’t seem to agree on this. Maybe you’re just simplifying for the sake of this medium, so I’m missing some of your perspective.
But you do seem to want a more progressive society. I hope your efforts are successful.
I mean she promised to shift to the right compared to Biden, and build that fucking border wall. How is "I’m so right wing I’ll include Republicans in my cabinet) anything other than regression?
… promised to shift to the right …
Source, please?
… include Republicans in my cabinet …
If both sides are already the same, how is this a shift?
I never said anything about both sides being the same. I was only criticizing Harris here.
“I’m so right wing…”
Yes, I was talking about Harris there, hence “I am” and not “we are”. Also I never implied she’s the same as bona fide Republicans, but she was definitely a shift to the right from Joe Biden.
Yes, and they’re spot on with their analysis. not a single one of her policies addressed the systemic issues afflicting our society atm. they were all small, pointless motions that would have not helped resolved the crippling wage suppression, the lack of decent health care, our dying climate, etc. reminder: harris wanted khan gone as well. and supported a genocide. she can go get bent as far as we’re concerned.
As being shown this week if harris came out for health care reform in a big way like bernie she probably would have won. something the left wing has been telling you twits for over a decade. stop trying to defend the indefensible shit stains that harris and biden were.
