A health “insurance” CEO is murdered – BECAUSE he was a health “insurance” CEO. How do we understand this, place it in context, perhaps use this tragedy as a “teachable moment”?
Among reactions to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is: “When you shoot one man in the street it’s murder,” one person posted on the social media site X. “When you kill thousands of people in hospitals by taking away their ability to get treatment you’re an entrepreneur.”
Long ago, the following was said: “Whoever has shown no mercy, he shall have judgment without mercy.” [James 2:13]
From America’s 1950s-60s conscience: “Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]
The tragic murder of Brian Thompson, by all accounts a good and decent human being, CAN be a “teachable moment” for America – IF. – we want it to be; IF we re-examine American “health care”; IF we seek a fact-based solution; IF we are willing to learn from other “rich” nations. Is this who we are???
Warnings about the often cruel, often inadequate American “health care” system have been available for at least 20 years. Some of these are:
1] “..[a]..viable and proven option: a single-payer or regulated multipayer health care system..exists in every nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development except for the United States and Mexico. The average OECD nation spends 6% to 10% of GDP on health care; we spend 17%. Their per-person spending averages $3000 to $5000 a year, compared to $8000 in the United States.
“We could save huge sums – more than enough to insure the uninsured – by cutting the administrative waste and executive profit in our system, and by collective bargaining to lower the price at which drugs, devices, and medical services are sold in this country.
“The true “elephant in the room”..is the fact ..our health care system has been “privatized” by an insurance industry more intent on lining its pockets than on ensuring..the American people get the service and care..they pay for. HMOs reap a hugely profitable business by denying and limiting care [a more severe form of rationing than exists in any other OECD nation].” [Dr. Ralph Bovard; Physicians for a National Health Plan member; 2/8/11; Mpls. Star-Tribune]
***!!!***!!!*** – Time Out! – re-read this – now ask yourself: what are the chances the MuskRamaswamy “Government
Waste Committee will save America billions/trillions by cutting “ADMINISTRATIVE WASTE AND
EXECUTIVE PROFIT” in OUR “health insurance” ???????????????
2] “Critical Condition…How Health Care in America Became Big Business – And Bad Medicine”: U.S. health care is rigged; profit & “market forces’ decide everything; U.S. health care “is a lottery;” the “myth” of U.S. ‘top’ health care & access; #1 cost driver: market-based health care; 1250% increase in U.S. drug prices, 1980-2002; U.S. drug prices 30-60% higher than the world; WallStreet corrupts U.S. medicine; post-1980 U.S. health care industry is a 1950s Soviet bureaucrat’s dream!!!; CPT: how insurers cheat doctors; move U.S. medical industry to India; the solution: single-payer. [Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Barlett & James Steele; 2006]
3] “How Hospital Monopolies Drive Up the Cost of Care…Health care mergers were supposed to bring lower prices and higher quality. They’ve done the opposite. Time to try regulation.’ [Book review of “Big Medicine..Megaproviders and The High Cost of Health Care in America” – David Dranove & Lawton Burns. – by Shannon Brownlee; November/December, 2022; Washington Monthly ]: hospitals & the AMA “lobbied hard” against government coverage of health care because it would lead to price controls. “The cost of health care is bankrupting families and depressing wages for average workers.” [!! time out! – what does “lobbied hard” against mean to YOU – do YOU smell ‘campaign contributions’ and other threats here?????]
4] “The Healing of America”. [T.R. Reid; 2009]: 20,000 Americans “in the prime of life” die each year; “hundreds of thousands” go bankrupt; “All other developed countries on earth have made a different moral decision..guarantee medical care to anyone who gets sick.”; “..even with these new strictures, the U.S. private insurers will still be the least efficient health care payers any where.” [!!! time out!!! – “..a different moral decision..”; “U.S. private health insurers
will still be the LEAST EFFICIENT health care payers ANY WHERE!!!!!!]
5] “America’s Bitter Pill…Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and The Fight To Fix Our Broken Healthcare System” [Steven Brill; 2015; – also, “Time’s” 3/4/13 “Special Report: “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us’}; gravy train for hospital administrators, Drug CEOs, Imaging Salesmen; only industry where tech advances INCREASE costs!; 9 of 10 largest Pharma companies paid millions/billions in criminal/civil penalties; largest U.S. industry; #1 in lobbyists; 60% of 2014 personal bankruptcies from medical bills; “socialism/ communism” for ANY govt restraints; {p.71} industry “won’t allow..cost control”; [p.97] Big Pharma’s demands !!!; U.S. insurer’s profits 20-25%, other nation’s 5%, Medicare 1%
6]. “The American Health Care Paradox”. [Elisabeth Bradley, Lauren Taylor; 2013]: inadequate social services leads to big health costs; the U.S. is NOT spending what other ‘rich’ nations do on social services to achieve good health; more ‘poor’ nations provide more equitable, high quality health care3 & much cheaper than the U.S.’ in Scandinavia health a means to an end, not THE end; “Overwhelming body of health literature”; socioeconomic circumstances more powerful than medical care in fostering public health [corroborated by U.S. research]; irrationality: in U.S. health framed as an INDIVIDUAL problem – all other factors get off scot-free!!! [!!!***!!!! – so, the Musk-Ramaswamy “government waste committee” – will consider this evidence when they cut $2 trillion from govt expenses, right???@tomdolen
7] “An American Sickness…HowHealthcare Became BigBusiness And How You Can Take It Back” [Elisabeth Rosenthal; 2017}: Economic Rules of the Dysfunctional Medical Market:
1]. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option.
2] A lifetime of treatment is preferred to a cure.
3] Amenities & Marketing matter more than good care.
4]. As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall.
5]. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American.
6]. More competitors vying for business doesn’t mean better prices; it can drive prices up, not down.
7] Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.
8]. There’s no such thing as a fixed price for procedure or test. And uninsured pay the highest prices of all.
9] There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything & everything.
10] Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.”
*** Unfortunately, the health insurance industry’s, so far [12/8/24] reaction is NOT one of reform: “Killing sends shock wave through insurance world…Companies rethinking security for top execs”. [Mike Hughlett, Patrick Kennedy; 12/7/24; MN Star Tribune].
Maybe it’s too early – BUT – there’s not one word – about changing their business model, or, even asking questions about why: not one word about why Americans are upset over health care denials.
AND – Americans ARE upset over “health insurance.” A former Republican Minnesota state legislator led protests outside UNH headquarters, in which 11 people were arrested – after exhausting her financial resources paying for cancer care and fighting with UnitedHealthcare over its denials and coverage limitations – FOR CANCER !!!
AND, on a Reddit forum, a popular parody rejection letter: for 12/4/24 emergency services because “you failed to obtain prior authorization before seeking care for the gunshot wound to your chest.” !!!!!!
AND – the 75,000 “haha” emoji sent to United Health Group’s Facebook site
And – apparently, from recent news stories – some people making the assassin into a “hero” in the “class war.”
This tragic death CAN become a beginning for positive change – BUT – ONLY – if YOU demand it. YOU can force pubic discussion to discuss the OBSCENE practices of the health insurance industry – and DEMAND changes in their business model – one like all other rich countries. – that puts the health of Americans over insurance industry profits.
IF the Trump administration is SERIOUS about cutting the cost of living in America for the lower 90% – then, it MUST start with reducing costs for health care. NO excuses.
With Justice For All 