UnitedHealthcare executive fatally shot in Manhattan, reports say

The attack appeared to be targeted, the New York Times reported, citing police. Investigators believe the gunman had been waiting in the area for some time before Thompson's arrival ahead of an investors meeting, CNN reported. The shooting happened not long before a scheduled UnitedHealth investor conference in Manhattan, which was cut short at about 9 a.m., roughly an hour after it kicked off as news of the shooting trickled out. UnitedHealthcare is the largest U.S. health insurer, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for healthcare than in any other country.

Consumer frustration with the U.S. healthcare system runs high and was the driving force behind the U.S. Affordable Care Act, which created a new type of health insurance and mandated coverage for preventative care as well as maximum profit levels. A cyberhack early in 2024 by another UnitedHealth company called Change that provided technology for most U.S. providers affected more than one third of Americans, who had their information stolen. Millions of providers experienced disruption in their businesses that lasted months, delaying care for patients and even salaries for healthcare employees.

Reuters trying really hard to not say the thing we are all thinking out loud. I'm not going to say that I wish death on CEOs, but it's really not hard to imagine why someone might want one of these leeches dead.

Oh, wow. I certainly was not expecting an assassination of a CEO anytime soon, despite how chaotic things are going to get. If the executive class starts feeling like they're on the chopping block, things could get very bad for the working class, especially with Trump on the horizon. Unlike us, they have class solidarity.

I do genuinely detest expressions of joy at the misfortune of others, even when I think the others have earned that misfortune, but I just cannot help the schadenfreude with this one. Feeling bad about feeling good is a weird headspace.

(my attorney has advised me to state that I think murdering CEOs is *checks notes* wrong)

tangentially related:

11 children worked 'dangerous' night shift at Iowa pork plant, investigators say

A sanitation contractor has been fined nearly $172,000

Burger King, Popeyes fined more than $2 million for violating child labor laws

poor people go to jail when they get caught committing crimes. wealthy people pay a fine and move on with their lives. usually the fine is small enough that they can just treat it as a cost of doing business.

when people can commit crimes without feeling any real consequences, vigilante justice like this is an entirely predictable outcome.

(and of course, there's a whole additional layer to this problem, where there's a ton of corporate malfeasance and misbehavior that harms society but technically isn't a crime because of some loophole or another...those child labor law violations are one of the few examples where employing children is unambiguously against the law as well as being relatively easy to prove)

This was easy to predict. Record profits, high stress for the working class, two justice systems. The inequality and helplessness lead to this and was preventable systemic, but, you know, shareholders.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one officer stated that the current pool of suspects include anyone with any sort of knowledge of UHC's method of making money. "We'll proceed with the operation's scheduling as soon as we receive pre-authorization, but of course," he said, "pre-authorization is obviously not a guarantee that a given service will be covered."

Relevant link:

https://youtu.be/vWA2aQYXDbo?si=TJiA-iB46XjDCaCy

Now that's what I call praxis.

Finally going after vermin instead of schoolchildren. Good. Slow progress is still progress. Hopefully, consequently, toppling the toxic system that produces these vermin in the first place.

Only one way to learn I guess

I feel like I'm Chidi Anagonye. I feel like murder is always wrong, but on the other hand, the death of this man has immediately changed insurance approval rates and almost certainly saved more than one life.

I don't advocate violence and at the same time, I can't help but see the justice.

Also, this: https://imgur.com/a/yczbSDa