Can’t access it from his profile, interesting.
As for the suggestion that Thompson’s murder should be an occasion to discuss America’s supposed rage at private health insurers, it’s worth pointing out that a 2023 survey from the nonpartisan health policy research institute KFF found that 81 percent of insured adults gave their health insurance plans a rating of “excellent” or “good.” Even a majority of those who say their health is “fair” or “poor” still broadly like their health insurance. No industry is perfect — nor is any health care model — and insurance companies make terrible calls all the time in the interest of cost savings. But the idea that those companies represent a unique evil in American life is divorced from the experience of most of their customers.
“See, anyone can make it!” …by lying, cheating, and stealing?
What a shit article.
I hate how the last quoted sentence phrases people as “customers” rather than people…
“Unique evil” is also ironic…we’re surrounded by unique evil in so many directions, and compared to every other civilized country, yes, this system is uniquely evil. It’s the banality of evil Hannah Arendt described.
Which is more barbaric: a lone vigilante killing 1 human or a system which kills roughly 70 people per day due to lack of care? If we had a serial killer who took 70 lives every day, would the news be trained on them?
A single death is a tragedy. Multiple deaths is “business as usual” in America. We’ve lost our humanity.
We are not customers, our employers are. We have no fucking choice in the matter. That’s the fucking problem. We need a public option to have an actual fair market where individuals are actually making market choices about their own health and not our employers.
The establishment is blind to structural violence as usual.
the news would be trained on them, for a month, maybe two. after that it’s no longer surprising or shocking, so it gets ignored, maybe they make a yearly special.
The piece mentions Thompsons humble rural upbring quoting another NYT article. He somehow fails to cite this.
But during Mr. Thompson’s tenure, UnitedHealthcare and its parent company were accused by lawmakers and regulators of systematically rejecting health claims.
UnitedHealth Group was the subject of a blistering report by a Senate panel this year that documented insurers’ refusal to pay for the care of older people recovering from falls or strokes. Mr. Thompson’s company was cited for a surge in denial rates of post-acute care for people on private Medicare Advantage plans, which increased to 22.7 percent in 2022 from 10.9 percent in 2020.
Earlier this year, Mr. Thompson and two other UnitedHealth Group executives were accused of insider trading and fraud in a lawsuit filed by the Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund.
The lawsuit claimed Mr. Thompson sold $15 million in personally held company stock while the Justice Department was starting an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group, an inquiry that he and other executives had failed to disclose. When news of the investigation became public, the price of the company’s stock plunged, erasing nearly $25 billion in shareholder value, according to the lawsuit. On Tuesday, officials from UnitedHealth Group declined to comment on the matter.
5 years old and still so relevant
Can’t tell if this is satire. I hope so.
Also, the fact that 81% of people like their health insurance is meaningless out of context. What percentage of those surveyed actually had a hospital stay I wonder? Was it the other 19%? I thought I liked my health insurance until I realized that they could deny a claim. I didn’t understand this because I’m young and healthy and haven’t had to deal with the nightmare myself.
The article is not satire.
I’m “happy” with my health insurance… compared to some other options. Compared to every other developed country? Very dissatisfied.
