Is the US a dystopia?

Mom just said to TV the Anthem Blue Cross CEO better watch out (not out of concern) and I just about choked laughing.

This used to be a reserved lady who went to church and voted for McCain and Romney

Even a friend of mine who is very, very anti-gun and gets really emotionally tied to gun violence and it's impacts responded to this with a, "well, maybe they shouldn't deny so many claims and cause so many deaths".

Health care is at the top of the list. It’s emotionally charged. When people are engaging with the health-care system, it’s not usually on their best day.

reminds me that in china there is a long history of violence against or murder of doctors by the families of patients who blame the doctors for any deterioration in the patient, whether or not it's justified

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_doctors_in_China
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3271288/fatal-stabbing-chinese-doctor-fuels-calls-stronger-laws-protect-medical-staff

on the whole doctors are not the crux of the problem and people in the USA do not tend to blame a doctor when they recommend a treatment or therapy and the insurance company denies coverage.

yes, thanks for refuting the point that i did not make

I find it odd when companies give money to both presidential candidates

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/unitedhealth-group/summary?id=D000000348

why? they’re trying to assure that they will continue to reap financial benefit for shareholders no matter which administration comes into power. it’s not that hard to figure out.

Good Guardian article about online rage over the insurance industry:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/05/unitedhealthcare-brian-thompson-killing-online-reaction

meanwhile

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:c6k2ozisr2bbitsafwwyistf/bafkreifmptkav4fug3zcesj3mujo6f7vplxto5no2h7qymuxuhhbrigyxq@jpeg

Where is that?

S Korea?

ya

i definitely blamed doctors for the whole oxy epidemic. they are the only defense people have against dangerous/too strong medicines and people will take anything a doctor tells them to take. and doctors used to be really careful about pain medication. most doctors anyway. and then all hell broke loose. who do i blame? walgreens? the sacklers? well, yes, them too. but you need a prescription to get the stuff.

x-post

xp I think that actual image was 8 years ago during the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, but they are saying bring it out again for the current President.

ah thanks my bad

theyre actually going with bread this time

https://i.imgur.com/NhGwPHT.png

xp to lagoon.

No worries. It ties in to this thread because the coverage of the recent South Korean martial law/failed coup mentioned how S. Korea, as another one of the richest countries in the world, like the US also has a failing health care system due to corruption and mismanagement.

People are fed up, these are broken systems.

https://i.imgur.com/d50wdu4.png

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/video-united-health-ceo-laments-offensive

United Health Group CEO Andrew Witty made no secret of his displeasure with the media scrutiny in the wake of the murder of former CEO Brian Thompson, according to an internal company address yesterday provided to me.

“You’ve seen a lot of media interest in this situation with a huge amount of misinformation and frankly offensive communication,” Witty said in the address, complaining about what he called the “aggressive, inappropriate and disrespectful” coverage. “People are writing things we simply don’t recognize,” he added.

“I’d like to give you a little bit of advice around the media…My strong advice and request to everybody is just don't engage with the media. If you're approached, I would recommend not responding and, if necessary, simply refer them to our own media organization.”

Meet the new boss

I saw a picture of a letter posted by a father where this company had denied the child a wheelchair of a specific type despite the child’s doctor recommending it for various reasons. I cannot conceive of the pent up anger out there from people who’ve had treatment denied or delayed for cancer, for a child’s care, for anything that is manageable or treatable if caught early.

It doesn’t shock me that insurance companies would remove their photos from their websites. Even the richest of these guys are a lot easier to encounter than your true superrich who may as well exist on a different planet (and who are much more responsible for how bad things are in the world).

It's confusing but I think Witty has been the over-boss for a while? His supposed salary in 2023 was like $24 million whereas Thompson's was $10m. I haven't bothered to look into it because I have standards for myself but I assume there are CEOs of various sub-corporations that are all owned somehow by United Health Group but called 82743 different things in order to do evil more profitably.

yeah Thompson was the CEO of the insurance division

It's going to be hilarious when it turns out this was a personal hit and the message on the bullets was a decoy strategy.

An investor who was mad he didn’t work harder at setting up automatic claim denial systems.

ilxor who was mad about his opinions on Tusk

shareholder pressure groups whacking CEOs to keep them on their toes>>ppl that start ilm album polls

TS: Greatest Hits v. Greatest Hits

EXCELCEOR

in orbit otm, andrew witty was thompson’s boss. united health’s other big division outside of united healthcare is called optum which has its own set of CEOs

its own set of CEOs

Collect 'em all!

Their heads I mean

nicely done, oliver barnes of the financial times

https://i.imgur.com/hSHd9P0.jpeg

better to lose it that way than by becoming CEO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/02/25/carrie-ann-lucas-dies/

i've had a lot of thoughts about this and i'm working really hard to resist the temptation to discourse. at the same time i do have things to say and i don't really have anywhere else to say them. everywhere else i hang out, talking politics is banned. talking politics causes severe problems in the community and puts at risk for reprisals. i don't really know much about how other people think or feel about this event. the only place i know about it from is here.

this is a little disorganized, but things feel like they're unsettled, unstable, in flux right now, and i don't really want to spend a lot more time thinking about the issue right now. so i'm sending the below out as is.

-

i'm a soon-to-be-former employee of a health insurance company. i worked at the place for seven years. it doesn't _work_. our insurance company, private insurance, american healthcare in general - it isn't _failing_, it _has failed_. i don't consider that a topic for debate.

my feeling is that when systems fail, the people with power over those systems get more and more desparate to hold on to that power. single-payer in america is not a political debate. it's a practical necessity. the longer and more rigidly one resists change, the more disruptive and radical that change is.

personally i see violence as a communciation method. in this i'm influenced by something Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said. "A riot," Dr. he said, "is the language of the unheard."

-

show of hands. does anybody here think their health insurance company _listens_ to them? does anybody think they _care_ about their subscribers' health and well-being?

huh. interesting, i wasn't expecting that i'd raise my hand in response to that. i meant it as a rhetorical question. but no, my view from the inside isn't that the people running healthcare companies are overly _evil_. it's that they're in a position where they're working to perpetuate a system that doesn't work.

me, most of my soon-to-be-former co-workers, from what i can tell - we're not stupid. we know the system doesn't work. the system doesn't work for _us_ either. i mean everybody i know wants, more than that, sees the _basic necessity_ of single-payer.

mind you, i don't know the c-suite people too well. the divide between those of us working and those of us running the show reminds me a _lot_ of the so-called division between capital and labor. the people i know all look at things one way, and the people running the show look at things basically the opposite way, from what we can tell.

in my observation, the main worry people have about political violence is the fear that _they're next_. that's _why_ it's important for ordinary people believe we're "temporarily embarrassed millionaires". so that we'll fight on the side of our oppressors.

i don't believe i'm a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. i don't see myself as being _in community_ with ceos of major health insurance companies. my values are based in care for the people in my community.

-

when i look at adverse systemic outcomes, the conclusion i draw is that the people whose responsibility is to prevent those outcomes are _either unable or unwilling_ to do what is necessary. from my perspective as someone experiencing those adverse outcomes, i don't really care which. these past few years i've really cut down on my use of the word "should". there is a problem. what can i do that will be effective at fixing the problem?

sometimes the answer is "nothing right now." _right now_ is an important part of that answer. nothing in this life is forever. so i accept that there's nothing i can do to fix american healthcare right now, and i do my best to not die, and i wait for the situation to change.

the situation may be changing. the situation may not. i'm _open to the possibility_ of change.

i do think that single-payer health care in the united states is, in practical terms, a necessity. i will work hard within my community to try and make that a reality. my personal preference is that this process be as non-violent as possible.

the thing is, i don't have a lot of power in a situation like this. my hands are (metaphorically) tied. if this guy, whoever he is, is gonna shoot a healthcare ceo, i can't stop it. do i think what he did was wrong? honestly, i've thought about it, and i don't know. i just don't have enough information to decide if the act that _he_ undertook was right or wrong.

do i think this man's death was good? do i celebrate this man's death? on consideration, yeah. yeah, i do. i think that's an appropriate response, all things considered. am i personally going to enact violence to try and change an unjust system? no. no, i am not going to do that.

News: Investigators have a “reason to believe” the person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City, according to police commissioner Jessica Tisch.

— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) December 6, 2024

dude's in fuckin Central America byeeeeeeeeee

xp sounds like the NYPD have their top men working on this it. Top men.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact says NYPD.. lol

please god don't make us "gotta hand it" to the NYPD because they half-ass the investigation

"we are unclear how he left New York. We told the suspect that the border was 'off-limits' to him"

https://bsky.app/profile/edsbs.bsky.social/post/3lco4n4idpk2y

do i think this man's death was good? do i celebrate this man's death? on consideration, yeah. yeah, i do. i think that's an appropriate response, all things considered. am i personally going to enact violence to try and change an unjust system? no. no, i am not going to do that.

pretty much my take here, thx Kate and io and Daniel and rob for the good posts

A discarded water bottle and a discarded cell phone, both allegedly used by the suspect, were sent to the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Friday to see if the items may contain viable DNA evidence, including skin cells, CNN reported citing a senior law enforcement official.

They received these items from Oscar the Snitch

At least the scolds didn't post this.

i wonder how the manson family murders would go down on twitter

— John Ganz (@lionel_trolling) December 6, 2024

interesting how the media focus has quickly shifted from "CEO killed in NYC" to "Americans' Palpable Rage at Insurance Companies"

I don't condone violence, but the dude helped open a conversation

I do condone violence and the dude helped open a conversation.

I don't condone violence

I do

the dude helped open a conversation

and this is why

lol jinx w/milo