Passing on featuring "New York, New York" as tune of the day, there is the specific news of a Minnesota executive, of a for-profit insurer, being shot to death by someone who'd labeled bullets. The shooting/investigation reporting is widespread.
The focus of this post is ancillary reporting of what Medicare for All would wipe out.
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Start by saying go easy on the dead, as you'll die yourself. But don't stop there.
The biggest publicly traded firm in Minnesota (Cargill being privately held) lost one of its senior minds, shot to death on a sidewalk, so Strib being "the Minnesota" news outlet covers:
Motive unknown in ‘brazen, targeted attack’ that killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC
December 4, 2024The Minnesota Star Tribune
[...] After his initial flight from the scene, the suspect was later seen riding an e-bike, including when he was spotted in Central Park.
“The motive for this murder currently is unknown,” Kenny said. “Based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted. But at this point, we do not know why.”
UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest health insurer. It is a division of UnitedHealth Group, the fourth-largest public company in America behind Walmart, Amazon and Apple.
[...] During the police news conference, reporters asked Kenny if there was any evidence to suggest a connection between the killing and a dispute over insurance coverage.
”We’re looking at everything,” the chief of detectives said. “We’re looking at [Thompson’s] social media. We are interviewing employees. We are interviewing family members.”
Kenny added: “We’re reaching out to law enforcement in Minnesota and we’re also interviewing his co-workers and family members to see if there have been any specific threats against him in the past.”
Thompson was named chief executive of the insurance division in April 2021. For several years prior, he ran the Medicare Advantage business within UnitedHealthcare, which has been at the center of recent industry scrutiny over risk adjustment payments and prior authorization denials.
Company leaders were gathered in New York at the annual investors’ conference for parent company UnitedHealth Group when CEO Andrew Witty abruptly halted the meeting just after 8 a.m. Central time.
“We’re dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members,” Witty said. “As a result, I’m afraid, we’re going to have to bring to a close the event.”
[...]
The scene at UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnetonka was somber.
Snow squalls whipped the U.S., Minnesota and company flags flying at half-staff as television news crews filmed. A bouquet of flowers had been laid inside the building’s front entrance.
Several Minnetonka police cars camped outside the campus, and the department appeared to position a security tower to monitor the headquarters. A spokesperson for the Minnetonka police department said it’s proactively stepping up patrols in the area of UnitedHealthcare’s campus and has been in touch with the company’s security team.
The Minnetonka police department spokesperson was not aware of any specific threats targeting the campus.
Police records show there have been many calls from company headquarters since January 2021, but a substantial number of those were 911 hang-ups.
On July 15, 11 people were arrested when the People’s Action Institute staged a protest over the company’s allegedly improper refusals to authorize or pay for care. UnitedHealth Group said at the time the safety of its workers was a top priority, and it had resolved the group’s specific concerns, remaining open to a broader dialogue on access to care.
Other calls have included three for an “unwanted person” and one each for an unfounded threat, a civil matter and a disturbance. The civil matter involved a UnitedHealthcare client living in California who was in a reimbursement dispute in May involving $1,000.
Following Thompson’s shooting, UnitedHealth Group issued a statement saying the company was working closely with the New York Police Department.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague,” the company said. “Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him. ... Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and all who were close to him.”
Several prominent Minnesotans, including Gov. Tim Walz and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, took to social media Wednesday to express their condolences.
Looking at all possibilities because motive was unknown seems, what? Strib has published another item:
Why UnitedHealthcare is a four-letter word to critics
Some mourn the shooting of chief executive but still have scorn for the insurance company he ran.
December 5, 2024The Minnesota Star Tribune
The opening image to that item hints at possible motivations for the shooting.
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| Protesters hold up signs saying "Stop Denying Us Care" as Andrew Witty, Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group, front, gathers his papers after testifying at a May 1 Senate Finance Committee hearing examining the cyber attack on Change Healthcare. The people were protesting claim denials and prior authorization requests that they say delays care. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press) |
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Briefly, text from that item:
Internet comments heaped scorn Thursday on UnitedHealthcare as the Minnetonka-based health insurer mourned the murder of its chief executive, Brian Thompson, who was shot just before an investor conference where the company was to reveal plans for greater profits next year.
Police have not publicly speculated on the motives of the person who shot at Thompson at least three times at close range Wednesday on a Manhattan sidewalk. But the sense that the shooting could be related to Thompson’s job and UnitedHealthcare’s reputation for denying care grew when it was revealed that one bullet casing found at the scene reportedly had the word “deny” scratched into it.
UnitedHealthcare is a for-profit company, but it’s not proven whether it’s really more aggressive than other insurers at denying care or simply that it draws more attention as the nation’s largest health insurer. Public data sets on denial rates by insurance company are limited. But the shocking shooting has put new focus on the firm, its reputation and history.
[...] “Let’s face it: For-profit companies exist to legally maximize shareholder value,” said Rep. Liz Reyer, DFL-Eagan, earlier this year when a court decision upheld Minnesota’s for-profit prohibition. “That’s their requirement.”
The company has faced increasing public scrutiny and congressional inquires over its denials of care, especially to elderly participants in Medicare Advantage plans. A report by a U.S. Senate subcommittee last October scolded UnitedHealthcare for denying prior authorization requests for expensive post-acute care at three times the rate that it denied other requests. [...] The company also has been accused of relying on a claims process, supported by artificial intelligence, that had a 90% error rate in determining whether a requested treatment was medically necessary.
UnitedHealthcare announced as recently as March 2023 that it was dialing back some requirements for prior authorizations, but the publicly traded company is always going to face opposing pressures, said Wendell Potter, a former Cigna vice president who has since become a whistleblower on the industry’s practices. An increase in spending on patients’ care caused the stock of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company to drop as much as 8% this fall, putting it under pressure from investors and analysts.
“It’s a company that has been a Wall Street darling,” Potter said, “and the way you become a Wall Street darling is you do a really good job of managing medical expense. It means you need to employ things like prior authorization and do it aggressively.”
Wall Street darling, lightning rod for disgruntled patients, and Crabgrass suggests a poster child for why Medicare for All is overdue. If MFA were in place, there would still be need for a personnel budget and delineation of covered or not care options such as elective plastic surgery to look different, etc. But profit motive would be removed, and chasing more shareholder bucks is original sin in healthcare provision. Also Big Pharma could be put in place by a national health service backed by an aggressive Government - (if we only could have either of those two things).
An ocean away, Guardian reports:
In the aftermath of the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while Thompson’s colleagues grieve and politicians decry his murder, some online discussion has shown little sympathy for Thompson or the industry he represented.
Instead, social media has been in engulfed in expressions of anger at many Americans’ dire experiences at the hands of health insurance companies and outrage at the large profits that they generate.
[...]
Vacillating between the condemnation of violence and dark humor, celebratory memes and outright violent rhetoric, comments on social media highlight the deep and often unpleasant connection Americans have with their own health system.
An expert in political violence told the Guardian he sees this as part of the US’s growing acceptance of violence as a way to settle civil disputes.
“Now the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,” said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats. “That’s what I saw when I saw this.”
Although the motive for the killing is unknown, it has not stopped rampant speculation that there was an obvious candidate – Thompson’s work in corporate health insurance. That speculation was only furthered by the discovery of shell casings scrawled with the words “deny”, “depose” and “defend” in permanent marker.
[...] Comments online did not single out Thompson, a 50-year-old licensed accountant who reportedly kept a low profile. Instead, they were targeted at an industry often seen as a despised fact of life in America. Comments laced “jokes” with the sting of denial, delay, debt and impenetrable bureaucracy, all ubiquitous and reviled experiences for the throngs of Americans who are now or have been insured through a private company.
Another comment: “Does he have a history of shootings? Denied coverage.”
Part of the item is denial of violence to settle civil grievances but, as quoted, the main thrust of reporting is a pissed off public who don't want to take it anymore.
But will. No choice in the matter. Only We The People having these feelings. Nobody important. Ask Bernie about it.
Politicians? Trump changing things? JD when he is on his own? Lobbying and influence buying by the medical industrial complex to be contstrained and overriden?
Get real. This is the U.S. of A. and know who owns it.