He was elevated by the United Healthcare (UHC) board because he was deemed capable of delivering products that were priced such that employers would buy it and deliver solid profit margins at the same time. The UHC model that quality of service mattered less than price points to both growth and margins was something anyone they chose would have been tasked to deliver on.
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
I love that line.
And required by the board to hit those profit margins. If he had failed in that task, he would have been replaced.
That’s why others have commented that his killing will not make any difference to the way the company operates.
Ah right. Sorry.
You’re right, it’s utterly disgusting that so many people have zero empathy for the victim of this murder. How dare they assess this guy’s life, judge it on its merits, and find it to be worthless? That’s the job of a health insurance company AI reviewing claims!
Well, it would be difficult to shoot AI in the back, I guess.
As I said to a family member this morning…….I think we may have found something to unify us and heal our political divisions.
It’ll be short-lived, but we’re having a moment.
I watch a ton of Dateline. It’s gonna be really something if it ends up being some dude his wife hired.
I mean, it’s almost always the spouse when a divorce is under way.
There have been talking heads on the cable news stations who have said – at a bare minimum – investigators simply must consider the possibility that Thompson was, directly or indirectly, “responsible for his own demise.”
They’ll be looking at financials, prenuptial agreements, insurance policies, etc., etc.
Without the shooter and the info that – likely – only he can provide – very little can be ruled out at this time … from what the public currently knows.
This is why I’m not really participating in the celebration. I get it, but I don’t share the feeling.
Basically, it’s not noteworthy that the CEO of a health insurance company is a piece of shit, because by definition the CEO of a health insurance company must be a piece of shit. All his murder accomplishes is a job opening for the next piece of shit in line.
The shooter has made the point that being a complete piece of shit with regards to other people’s lives is not a risk-free proposition. Maybe the next piece of shit will consider a little more carefully how shiitty he should be.
That is the shooter’s hoped-for outcome, anyway, if his motive is as has been speculated.
The next piece of shit will at least have in the back of his mind that murder is on the table. Also, I think the reaction to the murder might be just as helpful as the murder itself, the country has not been this united in a long time.
Yeah, DME was difficult to figure out because it was so varied and usually didn’t make up a lot of overall expense…we mostly focused on upcoding or fragmented billing (unbundling procedure sets to charge more for them).
I’m now getting ads on Facebook asking me to join a class action against United if they denied my claim. The other leopards smell fresh blood and there’s face-eating to be had.
Probably not: the lesson they will take is that there are crazy fuckers out there, so the solution will not be change/reform in corporate behavior, it will be “We need more security!” It is analgous to the fundamental flaw in criminal justice, that penalties do not encourage criminals to avoid that behavior but to discover ways to avoid getting caught doing that behavior.
The “live laugh love” Etsy moms are selling Adjuster-themed tchotchkes now. I think it’s safe to say this guy has achieved folk hero status.
I agree, even though the day after the shooting Anthem suddenly announced that they had decided not to go ahead with their controversial plan to limit coverage for anesthesia. The most we can hope for is that this event might somewhat reduce the recklessness with which health insurers deny claims, but in the long run it will not and can not change the basic behaviour. The things that make people so angry about health insurers is fundamental to the way the insurance business works.
There is a basic contradiction here: health insurers have been sued for claims denials that have caused adverse consequences including death, but OTOH if a health insurer fails to deny claims when it has the contractual right to do so it could rightfully be sued by the shareholders. This contradiction reflects the fact that the insurance model is fundamentally the wrong model for funding health care.
Brian Thompson’s replacement spoke about how much Thompson had been admired within the company. I believe it, because he was obviously a good businessman. That was also why he was so loathed by all the unfortunate policyholders that his company screwed over.
Cricut (pronounced cricket) - gotta love it.
It won’t be up to them. That’s the beauty of revolutions. And the horror, too, I suppose.
I’ve noticed this confusion for most of this thread. Maybe people could write “United” for United Health Care" and “UHC” for “Universal Health Care”.