# United healthcare CEO assassinated, the P&E edition {This is not a gun debate/statistics thread!} **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 5, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195 "2024-12-05T13:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 309
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195/309 "2024-12-11T18:50:47Z")
These posts were in the MPSIMS thread, but I think my response belongs here. > [@UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in Manhattan \[2024-12-04\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unitedhealthcare-ceo-fatally-shot-in-manhattan-2024-12-04/1011159/720): > > If these people you mention are the proximate cause of misery, and actively work to prevent any proposed reduction in that misery, then someone may choose to do something rash. Should we have wrung our hands if a few tobacco CEOs got assassinated in the 60’s for working so hard to kill their customers? The other twist is UHC’s resistance to reform. The CEO doesn’t only act in a destructive system, he perpetuates it by instructing his lobbyists to do so. Switzerland has a health care system based on private insurance without so much abuse, but no insurance exec is advocating for it. > [@UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in Manhattan \[2024-12-04\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unitedhealthcare-ceo-fatally-shot-in-manhattan-2024-12-04/1011159/736): > > That’s all to the side, though: what I want is for people like Thompson and corporations like his company to be held accountable, and I don’t think killing someone on the street is an effective way to do that. On the other hand, I don’t know what would be effective short of having people grow both a conscience and a backbone. UHC is being sued, so they are held accountable in civil court. Holding them accountable in criminal court would involve a change in the law, a heavy lift. Health care reform is always a heavy lift. It only happens when both houses are controlled by Democrats, and even then it’s very hard because people balk when you try to reform 1/6th or more of the economy. So what is to be done? The rule of law works well, narrowly speaking. Don’t murder unless you are prepared to spend at least 30 years in prison, probably more. Aggressively hunt down assassins who target the elite: the system needs to protect itself. And make jokes when the vics are very bad actors. If UHC’s denial rate is twice the industry standard, then they are malignant innovators. ID them as such. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that if you cause enormous suffering, are evasive about what you are doing, and are rewarded for your malicious policies beyond most people’s dreams, then you don’t get to saunter down the street in a bright blue suit without a security detail. Checks and balances. One more thing. Consumer Reports needs to ID the worst actors in the health care industry. So do other reviewers. The lists need to be widely distributed and individuals need to have a word with HR as appropriate. That’s not sufficient - the system is terrible _though better than it was before Obamacare_, but it’s something that can be done now. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-healthcare-ceo-assassinated-the-p-e-edition-this-is-not-a-gun-debate-statistics-thread/1011195)._