As a whodunit, this is a fascinating case. Of course I sympathize with the wife and children, don’t know enough about the victim to care one way or the other. My theory is a professional hit, but I doubt it was a disgruntled policyholder or family of someone who is dead or impoverished because of the company not covering something. My money is on someone in the business that he screwed over somehow. To pull off something like this in broad daylight in the middle of Manhattan and not be apprehended this many hours after is astounding. But, I think he gets caught before the week is out.
I wouldn’t wager we’re in the era of The Propaganda of the Deed 2.0.
But the organizations looking to make their fortunes suppressing that would just love it.
Even in the event the deceased was a double-crossing corporate greaseball it’s more than a little disturbing that as a nation we’re at a point where so many are (and have been for some time!) so prepared for violence against the people we hate (for reasons fair and foul) that it barely merits a reaction.
This is NOT a sign of a healthy nation.
Further discussion though is probably too political for breaking news.
It’s definitely the biggest case of “De mortuis nil nisi bonum” since the recent death of gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi.
I found out, via Facebook, that one of my childhood bullies worked in the claims denial department of a health insurance company, and then I blocked her, not being surprised at her occupation. Like I’ve said earlier, I do understand why such a department exists, but yeah, she was probably the type who would do it for kicks and grins.
Spoiler (and if you don’t want to read this, the TL : DR is that I considered outing her by name on social media during the #metoo era, something I do regret not doing - and never saw anyone else who wasn’t famous do it):
Among other things, she wanted to arrange my gang-rape, with her brothers and other boys too (she was one of 7 kids) so I would get pregnant and have to leave school. Oh, yeah, a lot of adults knew about it, but they didn’t care, or they accused me of doing something to her to make her want to do something like that to me. Now, knowing what I do now, one has to wonder what kind of nightmare scenario a GIRL of 12, 13, or 14 would have had to experience to even think of doing anything like that to another girl, so in that regard, I get it, sort of.
Second spoiler:
Other kids, when their parents are out, would look for booze, pornography, the good candy, etc. Me? I was looking for a gun so I could take it to school and shoot her, and I really believe that if I had done that, people would have stood in line and taken numbers to defend my actions.
I tried to do a spoiler-ception but it didn’t work.
Remember how many wealthy and powerful people were tied to Epstein’s notorious “pedophile island”? Just because he was wealthy doesn’t mean that he wasn’t involved in something horrific, even outside of his profession (which is awful enough to provoke somebody).
And of course it could just be something perfectly mundane like a killing over an extramarital affair. Although in that case they’re a lot more likely to be able to find the person responsible.
UHC has the worst record for claim denials
While the CEO isn’t responsible for denying specific claims, the corporate cultue usually starts with him
I just created a spin-of thread
And i think that’s a better place to discuss those issues than this breaking news thread.
First of all, the joking and “he deserved it” mentality is not a good sign for this country. Very MAGA, in fact. Many people work for companies that exist primarily to maximize the wealth of their shareholders. And when that is the goal, there will always be people that feel wronged. Victims of capitalism. And let’s also remember that “for profit” medicine is something that Americans could have voted away for decades. No, we (collectively) chose to keep medicine private, even as “for profit” medicine makes our medical care more expensive and less successful than in most other modern democracies.
What would be interesting is if the reason was coverage denial, but that it wasn’t even UHC’s fault. Many large companies “self-insure” their medical coverage, which basically means they pay all the bills. For these companies, insurers such as UHC only administer their plans. Decisions on complex claims are typically made by the company itself, and the administrator, such as UHC, is just communicating the decision. That would be a sad case of “shooting the messenger”.
Thank you @puzzlegal. I was actually just trying to figure out how to do that.
Those with the power and the money are very successful at convincing people to vote against their own self-interests.
I wouldn’t make that wager either… but I’ll say that I wish we were entering such an era. It would do this country some good. Happy to take further thoughts to the spinoff threads.
I think it’s overwhelmingly likely (99%) that the perpetrator is: 1) a pissed-off policyholder/family member of a policyholder, or 2) a disgruntled UHC employee. I’ll give 1% to the other possibilities floated here – gambling debt! business rival! jilted lover! – which, frankly, strike me as fantastical (and a gross violation of Occam’s razor, to boot).
And if it proves to be door #1 – pissed off policyholder – let me further hypothesize that The Propoganda of the Deed will indeed turn out to be a secondary motive. (With the primary motive, of course, being the whole pissed off/revenge thing.)
Those are not publicly available - how would the shooter access that list?
Yeah, I’m wondering if people will start a GoFundMe for the shooter’s legal defense after he gets caught.
If the killer was a hired gun, which seems likely to me with how well orchestrated the whole thing was, then the only reason to do it in public is if they wanted people to see it. There are much more discreet ways of killing someone.
Here’s an interesting detail - the killer apparently carved messages into the bullets.
It appears to be a reference to “Delay, Deny, Defend”.
https://siliconvalleylawyer.net/2017/09/22/beware-insurance-company-three-ds-delay-deny-defend/
I find it interesting to note that the ABC story carefully avoids mentioning that, Instead there’s a lot of stuff trying to make him look sympathetic.
As if the Illuminati weren’t threatening enough, now the killers are from the Alliterati.
The thing that makes me doubt it was a professional hit is that the shooter apparently left a cell phone behind. That seems like one of the worst things you could possibly do if you didn’t want to get caught. Even if it was a burner phone, if it had been used at all there could be all kinds of evidence in it (or on it if he touched it with his bare fingers). Doesn’t seem like something a professional, or even a clear-thinking amateur, would do.
Sorry, could you link to the story you are criticizing?
The ABC story I found on a quick Google search does indeed mention the “Delay, Deny, Defend” matter in the very first sentence. Nor does it seem to go out of its way to “make him look sympathetic.” Yes, it quotes his wife (!) and colleagues as praising him, but isn’t that pretty normal?
Did you actually want his grieving widow to say, “yeah, he worked for the health insurance industry, which we all know is evil, so probably he deserved to die”?
I don’t think GFM allows that sort of thing.