8mo ago

Progressive lawmakers say the reaction to the UHC CEO killing is a 'wake-up call'

www.businessinsider.com

Summary

Progressive lawmakers view the online praise for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a sign of deep public frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called it a “wake-up call” highlighting resentment over financial and health precarity, while Sen. Bernie Sanders emphasized that anger reflects the belief that healthcare is a human right.

Though all lawmakers condemned the murder, some progressives argue it underscores systemic issues like claim denials.

Calls for healthcare reform have intensified amid public outrage.

47 comments

Agree, though we've had so many wake up calls lately...none seem to land.
- Yep. I'll care when the politicians actually do something besides make speeches. Not that I'm expecting anything at all from the Democrats, they're too busy trying to decide which Republican policy they want to water down and implement next.
- Too many people still chasing the American Dream, scared to death of being woke.
  
  To paraphrase George Carlin: they call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
  
  It should be rebranded the American Delusion.
  
  The dream has turned to a nightmare.
- They woke up... just to fall asleep again.
- Yup. Either violent revolution will eventually bring about positive change (after probably making things worse first), or we're stuck with an oligarchy dictatorship forever.
Progressive lawmakers view the online praise for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a sign of deep public frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.
It’s not just the healthcare system
- Agreed, and also it's not just "frustration". Their choice of words is a sugar coating.
  
  Thank you...
  Wtf are you saying "the belief" that health care is a human right?? You can go believe in your God or your orange man, health care IS a human right and "believing" in it is ridiculous....
We need to stop the needless CEO killings by switching to universal healthcare! Think of all the CEO lives we could save by doing this!
- I mean, whatever works...
- At risk of going off topic, it wouldn’t matter of Bernie or AOC or someone to the left of them had run for every open position.
  The Democrat’s problem was campaigning on a high horse like its 1950, instead of seeding propaganda in social media. It’s the delivery, not the message, and they are going to keep losing until we get a “liberal Trump” shameless enough to break that mould.
  The wake-up call for me was watching post election interviews of ostensibly educated college students from fairly liberal campuses… and now, there is no govt incentive to reign that in.
  
  It's both the delivery and the message. Saying it's only the delivery implies anyone was every going to vote for the Democrats' "everything is fine" position when everything is decidedly not fine.
  
  What exactly are you basing this on? Harris ran a terrible campaign with the usual Democratic half-measure policy proposals and lost. That should hardly be a surprise. There is no evidence to say that a populist Democrat like Bernie or AOC couldn't win.
  What if Harris had made the whole campaign into a referendum on the broken healthcare system? It turns out that that's where the Republican voters she was trying to woo were hiding all along.
  
  The Dems would rather lose than concede to Progressive populist ideals.
  
  I actually kinda feel that someone like Bernie may have had enough youth appeal to have a somewhat organic version of that happen. During the 2016 primaries, a decent amount of memes and online talk were spawned by him/his campaign.
  Definitely agree that delivery is extremely important though, campaigning on helping workers while appearing elite and out of touch just makes people consider you a liar or to be looking down at people.
Unless lawmakers get their heads out of their asses and do something useful, the only change that will come from this "wake-up call" is that companies will try to obfuscate their executive roster and those executives will travel with a security detail paid for by denying more insurance claims.
- denying more insurance claims
  You say that like that wasn't their top priority the day before the shooting.
  I don't mean to antagonize, but I dislike even passive implications that they've shown us any quarter or will stop being nice now.
  They were always for maximum murder for maximum profit. At no point does anyone in charge go "well if they've paid their premiums for decades and never used their plan at all, let them have the surgery" if they have any technicality to prevent it.
  No amount of Good boy/girl reverence towards them has or will result in anything positive for their customers/marks.
  That's bad for business. They never used kid gloves, so they have nothing to take off. There was 0 good faith being exercised between private health insurers and their customers on December 3rd.
  If anything, what happened helped a few BlueCross patients not be billed tens of thousands for anasthesia for their approved surgeries after the fact, at least for a few months until they institute it anyway if this moment passes without becoming a movement. Unlike goodwill, they do seem to respond to fear.
- You forgot that up an ass is where they can get the most lobbyist bribes.
Calling for anything less than universal healthcare and the abolition of private, for-profit health insurers means they still side with them.
There isn't any quagmire, we're the only "developed nation" that chooses not to have universal healthcare coverage in some form.
We choose not to solely because there's a booming industry profiting off selling us a fake guarantee of care, a con, and then killing us instead and keeping the premiums we paid them, score, and that industry pays politicians to be against universal healthcare in practice, lip service when out of power notwithstanding.
You show me a politician against universal healthcare, and I'll show you someone who either took the money, or a coward legislating by path of least resistance.
And reminder "herp derp waitlists" Is a red herring, that isnt a function of Healthcare coverage or payment at all, that's a function of a Society's supply of Medical professionals regardless of who pays them, and that's a whole other conversation about why our society's sociopathic economy rewards self serving MBAs and Hedge Fund managers and economically punishes what society actually needs: nurses, teachers, etc.
Our economy incentivise and punish lots of things already, the owners just use their captured government to incentivise all the wrong things and punish most of the right things from the perspective of almost all of the citizenry, whether they've been successfully propagandized against their own interests or not.
"Herp derp well when it Trickles down and Im a millionaire, I'll just buy buy me a concierge medicine plan, and I don't want my future millionaire self to have to pay for poor people's Healthcare! You feel me Cletus? Pass me another beer." -Capitalist's sad, deluded victims
Is it though? Cause a lot of progressives vote like they are asleep. (I say this as a progressive mind you...)
- Progressives are the most politically engaged segment in the US, even ahead of evangelicals. Progressives are most likely to vote, to donate, and to volunteer for campaigns. This is true despite the fact that Democrats never give them much to vote for.
- Do you mean "Progressives" or "progressives." It's like saying "Democrat" or "democratic." There's a stance and then there's boots on the ground, populist minded, human focused ideology.
  When any movement's name is coopted by its uppercase, it's effectively diminished.
If only a bunch of people hadn't stayed home a month ago.
- That's what happens when you're presented with a candidate who is "not as bad as the other side's pick."
  Democrats keep fucking themselves.
Unfortunately, nothing will ever happen. Especially since Republicans have no interest in universal healthcare and hold every position of power now. It's all about money.
Ok so what are they going to do about it? Rant on twitter? Wake up call for what? To do what? What’s the message? What’s the call for action?
When you’re in politics all the solutions awfully tend to look like politics as usual it seems.
We know how much will get done in healthcare with the next administration. I’m looking for someone to call for a general strike over this. Some actions that is not just some hope and prayer bill that will never get passed.
I’ve lost all faith in the media and even stories like this. It feels like controlled opposition.
Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t kill Kennedy, and the new patsy didn’t kill the asshole CEO who murdered grandmas and grandpas and made people’s lives a living hell by denying claims with AI.
They’ll release a mountain of evidence against him and find every way to discredit this “suspect” in public opinion. They’ll silence him and discredit him with their bully pulpit. That’s what they do. Meanwhile, the available evidence suggests strongly that he didn’t do it. Wrong guy.
- If they were just trying to pin it on someone, I doubt they would pick a child of the autocracy tech-bro. It would be some poor city kid who could only afford a public defender.
  
  Not to be too much of a tin hat here but if the patsy was in on it seems like the type who might be down to help the feds and disappear
- Unhinged
Lies. This is just “give them news to calm them down” keep deposing!
Of course they are. They have been! And then they go out and vote someone in who’s going to enrich these healthcare executives and shareholders like never before.
The line between voter sentiment and candidates/policy is completely busted, twisted by bubbles and feeds, and it’s going to get exponentially worse now. So I hate to sound cynical, but I don’t see what good this sentiment does unless these candidates get in the dirt and play the propaganda game.
Great, if we need any slightly miffed letters sent to people we disagree with, we'll call you.
Useless virtue signallers.
It’s nothing unless it happens directly to them, meaning the CEOs/wealthy. One death is a one-off. They’ll review or “enhance” their corporate security procedures which will consist of: telling already abused and overworked front line workers to watch some corporate security video and who to report suspicious people to. Tell middle managers to keep an eye on employees for suspicious behavior. Upper management will create the plan and worry unnecessarily it might be them targeted because they’re this close to actually being important. And the C-suite might actually get an occasional bodyguard, guard at home, or block access to the c-suite unless approved by said guard. Maybe. Most of them won’t GAF except a minor twinge of worry washed away by their next $75 glass of fine wine at a Michelin starred restaurant.
Who's waking up? We're already seeing the end of this news cycle. People are pre-occupied with the stupid drones in NJ and losing interest over this. I would nearly guarantee we see no long-term changes to our health care system. The public operates in 2 week outrages. It would take a longer attention span to actually fix something. Someone'd have to dismantle the corrupt lobbying system in DC. Reminder: this year ALONE companies spend more than $130 million on lobbying in DC. The politicians don't work for us, the people, they work for the health companies and their lobbyists. This is business as usual.
Snooze
Wake up, grab your brush and put a little makeup
Unless you watch Fox, or use X, because remember kids CEO's have a duty to make money for shareholders.

47 comments