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CEO of United Healthcare gunned down in midtown Manhattan

Thyrsis

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Some say it's a division of the publicly-traded entity. Maybe it's a personal attack unrelated to the healthcare system. But early reports are that it was a targeted hit. I'm sure facts will come out that enhance or knock down the significance of this event. But if it's related to his official role, I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.
 
Some say it's a division of the publicly-traded entity. Maybe it's a personal attack unrelated to the healthcare system. But early reports are that it was a targeted hit. I'm sure facts will come out that enhance or knock down the significance of this event. But if it's related to his official role, I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.
Could you post the article?
 
Some say it's a division of the publicly-traded entity. Maybe it's a personal attack unrelated to the healthcare system. But early reports are that it was a targeted hit. I'm sure facts will come out that enhance or knock down the significance of this event. But if it's related to his official role, I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.
Or he was a degenerate gambler or drug addict or was screwing someone (the wrong someone) over outside of work.
 
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Some say it's a division of the publicly-traded entity. Maybe it's a personal attack unrelated to the healthcare system. But early reports are that it was a targeted hit. I'm sure facts will come out that enhance or knock down the significance of this event. But if it's related to his official role, I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.
No idea why but is open enrollment with people saying damn this is crazy expensive
 
I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.
Don’t know if this is why he was killed, but I agree with your observation of where things are headed. The individual is being pushed to irrelevance in hundreds of ways. What’s worse is many individuals want this.
 
...when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.

What other major industries do we have that have been more arranged -- largely by government -- around the idea of the common good than healthcare? Telecommunications? Transportation? Tech? Retail? Housing?

Healthcare hasn't always been ridiculously expensive. Things started going off the rails with healthcare costs in the early 70s. Would I totally point the finger at the passage of things like Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO Act, NMHPA, MHPA, HIPAA, COBRA, ACA, etc? No. Would I make the observation that the more involved public policy has gotten in healthcare, the more it has deviated from CPI? Yes, I would.

Saying that healthcare and healthcare finance, as we know it, has been arranged around "(leaving) the common good...in the dust" is just divorced from historical reality. It's not government's efforts to establish a de facto right to healthcare have left the common good in the dust. It's that the efforts have had unintended consequences.
 
What other major industries do we have that have been more arranged -- largely by government -- around the idea of the common good than healthcare? Telecommunications? Transportation? Tech? Retail? Housing?

Healthcare hasn't always been ridiculously expensive. Things started going off the rails with healthcare costs in the early 70s. Would I totally point the finger at the passage of things like Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO Act, NMHPA, MHPA, HIPAA, COBRA, ACA, etc? No. Would I make the observation that the more involved public policy has gotten in healthcare, the more it has deviated from CPI? Yes, I would.

Saying that healthcare and healthcare finance, as we know it, has been arranged around "(leaving) the common good...in the dust" is just divorced from historical reality. It's not government's efforts to establish a de facto right to healthcare have left the common good in the dust. It's that the efforts have had unintended consequences.
Purely anecdotal as I don’t have time to do the research but I feel like it’s been the last five to ten years that it went crazy. Coinciding with open enrollment etc. Not only premiums but the deductibles are now insane.

And of course that’s nothing compared to costs of care
 
What other major industries do we have that have been more arranged -- largely by government -- around the idea of the common good than healthcare? Telecommunications? Transportation? Tech? Retail? Housing?

Healthcare hasn't always been ridiculously expensive. Things started going off the rails with healthcare costs in the early 70s. Would I totally point the finger at the passage of things like Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO Act, NMHPA, MHPA, HIPAA, COBRA, ACA, etc? No. Would I make the observation that the more involved public policy has gotten in healthcare, the more it has deviated from CPI? Yes, I would.

Saying that healthcare and healthcare finance, as we know it, has been arranged around "(leaving) the common good...in the dust" is just divorced from historical reality. It's not government's efforts to establish a de facto right to healthcare have left the common good in the dust. It's that the efforts have had unintended consequences.
No.
 
Purely anecdotal as I don’t have time to do the research but I feel like it’s been the last five to ten years that it went crazy. Coinciding with open enrollment etc. Not only premiums but the deductibles are now insane.

And of course that’s nothing compared to costs of care
And, despite this, many major healthcare networks are sucking wind financially.

Read this story about healthcare in Vermont and what a mess it is. The upshot of the story is that, while they boast having the highest insurance coverage percentage in the country, services themselves are hard to come by and costs are spiraling. And despite this, 9 of the 14 hospitals/systems in the state were losing money.

This is yet another reminder that having health insurance and being able to access and afford healthcare goods and services are two different things.

It reminds me of what Javier Milei said about poverty statistics in Argentina in his interview with Lex Fridman: the headline stats take into account the money people are holding...they don't take into account the availability of goods at sound and stable prices which can be purchased with that money.

Milei demonstrated this with a fable about a man trying to buy a vase in a marketplace -- the seller had one and wanted $5k for it....the buyer asked why he'd pay $5k when a nearby merchant was advertising them for $1k. And the seller told him "Go there and see if you can get a vase for $1k."
 
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100 percent agree. If you want to lose faith in fellow humans, read the responses on Twitter and even mainstream news articles to the shooting.

Jokes, he had it coming, etc. We've lost our way.
 
"Brian Thompson, 50, was outside the hotel on Sixth Avenue when the suspect shot him in the chest and leg around 6:46 a.m."

Maybe someone moved over a block...

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"
 
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After rewatching it - it may have not been a pro job. The gun fails to eject every time he fires. That could be one of the following, none of which are likely to happen to a pro:
  • Faulty / dirty pistol
  • Bad magazine spring
  • Crappy ammo
  • The silencer is overly suppressing the gas required to eject the round and bring the slide back into place
I’m going with amateur - disgruntled employee.
 
After rewatching it - it may have not been a pro job. The gun fails to eject every time he fires. That could be one of the following, none of which are likely to happen to a pro:
  • Faulty / dirty pistol
  • Bad magazine spring
  • Crappy ammo
  • The silencer is overly suppressing the gas required to eject the round and bring the slide back into place
I’m going with amateur - disgruntled employee.
There is a post in this thread that quotes his wife saying that he had received threats due to lack of coverage. It could be someone who lost a loved one, blames the insurance company for not covering necessary treatments/procedures and decided to take matters in their own hands.
 
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There is a post in this thread that quotes his wife saying that he had received threats due to lack of coverage. It could be someone who lost a loved one, blames the insurance company for not covering necessary treatments/procedures and decided to take matters in their own hands.
Maybe. I’m guessing not though. How would a random pissed off guy know what hotel a CEO was staying at and what time they’d be leaving?

None of that adds up.
 
Maybe. I’m guessing not though. How would a random pissed off guy know what hotel a CEO was staying at and what time they’d be leaving?

None of that adds up.
I don't think it's out of reason that someone lost someone a little while ago and has been trying to track down where he'd be. Wasn't he at some conference? If he's listed as a keynote, it's not that hard to figure out that he'd be there.
 
I don't think it's out of reason that someone lost someone a little while ago and has been trying to track down where he'd be. Wasn't he at some conference? If he's listed as a keynote, it's not that hard to figure out that he'd be there.
He was leaving the hotel he was staying at and the gunman knew the route Thompson would take to get to the conference at the Hilton - and he was early for the event. It’s completely unreasonable to think that someone (lacking inside info) would be able to track him down and ambush him.

CEOs of much smaller companies usually have a PSD with them…where was this $350B+ company CEO’s security?
 
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He was leaving the hotel he was staying at and the gunman knew the route Thompson would take to get to the conference at the Hilton - and he was early for the event. It’s completely unreasonable to think that someone (lacking inside info) would be able to track him down and ambush him.

CEOs of much smaller companies usually have a PSD with them…where was this $350B+ company CEO’s security?

Reports I heard say he was hanging out for some time before Thompson arrived. There was a scheduled meeting with investors at the Hilton, so anyone knowing about that would know he'd show up there eventually. Who knows the true motive, but an angry family member of someone who wasn't covered "properly" by United is plausible. Hell, they make TV movies about those types all the time.
 
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He was leaving the hotel he was staying at and the gunman knew the route Thompson would take to get to the conference at the Hilton - and he was early for the event. It’s completely unreasonable to think that someone (lacking inside info) would be able to track him down and ambush him.

CEOs of much smaller companies usually have a PSD with them…where was this $350B+ company CEO’s security?
The sad truth is if someone wants you dead, it's not that hard for them to get their wish if they have a degree of patience and are properly motivated. Mental stability and social compact is all that stands in the way of this happening more often.

The key is not strongly motivating someone to want you dead.
 
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I think it's much more likely that he got involved with the mob or slept with some guy's wife or something like that.

Revolutions are fun, but they don't happen very often. Crime and jealousy happen all the time. That's probably what happened here.
 
100 percent agree. If you want to lose faith in fellow humans, read the responses on Twitter and even mainstream news articles to the shooting.

Jokes, he had it coming, etc. We've lost our way.
Completely agree. Seems like all of the comments are of the despicable nature.

This guy was human. He had a family. Regardless of what you think of what he did for a living, have some f*****g decency.
 
Completely agree. Seems like all of the comments are of the despicable nature.

This guy was human. He had a family. Regardless of what you think of what he did for a living, have some f*****g decency.
I’m in customer service. I’ve dealt with the public for 30 years. People are terrible today. Mean. Entitled. Very hard to deal with. Not nice
 
Reports I heard say he was hanging out for some time before Thompson arrived. There was a scheduled meeting with investors at the Hilton, so anyone knowing about that would know he'd show up there eventually. Who knows the true motive, but an angry family member of someone who wasn't covered "properly" by United is plausible. Hell, they make TV movies about those types all the time.
It’s possible - I wouldn’t go so far as to say probable.

I’ve stayed in that Hilton. It’s the biggest hotel in manhattan. It’s an entire city block that is accessed from multiple (4 different) streets. Guessing which street was his approach vector is pretty damned random. It reeks of inside information.

This is becoming a liberal fantasy of it being some sort of warning against “greedy tycoons”. Knowing what I know about that hotel and CEO security makes it much more likely to be a disgruntled employee.
 
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I think it's much more likely that he got involved with the mob or slept with some guy's wife or something like that.

Revolutions are fun, but they don't happen very often. Crime and jealousy happen all the time. That's probably what happened here.
Yeah, as I said in my original post I think it’s an alternative lifestyle or a disgruntled employee with inside information on his plans. I’m still sticking to the latter until more info comes out.
 
Some say it's a division of the publicly-traded entity. Maybe it's a personal attack unrelated to the healthcare system. But early reports are that it was a targeted hit. I'm sure facts will come out that enhance or knock down the significance of this event. But if it's related to his official role, I'd say this is where things trend when systems are so deeply broken, when institutions are set up for purposes only aimed at taking money, when the common good is left in the dust, and when more of the population is rendered powerless and facing unreasonable outcomes.

Could it be someone sick and tired of all those Medicare Advantage commercials (Unied Health Care being a prime contributor) which occur annually this time of the year is the shooter :)?

Yikes, just when the political commercials end these commercials take over.

Then there are the pharma ads which never end. Having said that, an Ozempic ad just came on my television, OMG.
 
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Could it be someone sick and tired of all those Medicare Advantage commercials (Unied Health Care being a prime contributor) which occur annually this time of the year is the shooter :)?

Yikes, just when the political commercials end these commercials take over.

Then there are the pharma ads which never end. Having said that, an Ozempic ad just came on my television, OMG.
There are several hundred commercials that drive people nuts and could drive people to extraordinary - and perhaps justifiable - violence.

I hate:

1. “You rule!” - Burger King
2. Jardiance - I am so fvcking tired of that stupid jingle
3. 1-800-cars for kids
4. “We have THE meats” - Arby’s
5. Mike Lindell

But I love the blonde who does the NewDayUSA commercials. And anything with Cindy Crawford.
 
There are several hundred commercials that drive people nuts and could drive people to extraordinary - and perhaps justifiable - violence.

I hate:

1. “You rule!” - Burger King
2. Jardiance - I am so fvcking tired of that stupid jingle
3. 1-800-cars for kids
4. “We have THE meats” - Arby’s
5. Mike Lindell

But I love the blonde who does the NewDayUSA commercials. And anything with Cindy Crawford.
The Burger King song has me at the cusp of cutting myself. Never have I wanted a company to fail more. My emails to them would make ignatius j Reilly/John Kennedy toole tip his hunting cap
 
The Burger King song has me at the cusp of cutting myself. Never have I wanted a company to fail more. My emails to them would make ignatius j Reilly/John Kennedy toole tip his hunting cap
Liberty Mutual and Progressive are also pretty bad.

And every area has that one attorney doing commercials that make you want to strangle the guy. The Atlanta market has a Jackie Chiles (Seinfeld) clone. The commercials are hilarious in their cringe-worthiness.
 
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Liberty Mutual and Progressive are also pretty bad.

And every area has that one attorney doing commercials that make you want to strangle the guy. The Atlanta market has a Jackie Chiles (Seinfeld) clone. The commercials are hilarious in their cringe-worthiness.
There’s a lawyer here, Jim onder, who basically bought up all of the air time on all of the terrestrial stations. Very nice guy with f you money. Mega hits. Baby powder all that shit. Why he’s bottom feeding with these ads I don’t know but he has single-handedly made Sirius etc a requirement. Terrestrial is an act of torture bc of him
 
I don’t share.

JFC, do I have to do everything around here?

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