I never agreed with Peta until today.

February

February

Active Member
Region
USA
OK, going to start out by saying that despite the fact I'm not a religious person, this man was still one of god's children and I don't support this kind of violence in anyway. Having said that, as someone who keeps falling through the cracks of the American "health care system" I fully understand the rage people feel towards any HMO or similar. These people are supposed to be taking care of us, they are getting payed obscene amounts of money to do so and they all have legal teams who's sole function is to find a way to deny you help when you need it. Yup, our healthcare system has murder squad departments to save a buck. I don't condone the murderer's actions, but I feel next to no sympathy for Mr. Thompson.

apnews.com

UnitedHealthcare's CEO is shot and killed outside a New York City hotel, AP source says

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot in Manhattan. The company was scheduled to have its annual meeting with investors Wednesday.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
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February said:
Having said that, as someone who keeps falling through the cracks of the American "health care system" I fully understand the rage people feel towards any HMO or similar. These people are supposed to be taking care of us, they are getting payed obscene amounts of money to do so and they all have legal teams who's sole function is to find a way to deny you help when you need it.
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Sorry to read you have had poor experience with the health care system.
  • Been with UHC for close to 20 years, still with them for Medicare Advantage. No issues.
  • Although premiums seem like a lot to many, look at the typical profit margin for a health insurance company; pretty low.
  • I recently had an MRI; much preferred paying my piece of the negotiated rate than what was billed.
 
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I had UHC for 6 years after I retired. my only complaint was, most of my doctors didn't belong to the plan I had and I paid higher out of pocket expenses. My company dropped their HMO retirement plan 5 years ago after numerous complaints. Most involved referrals for the cheapest treatments, rather than more expensive ones that better suited the patient.
 
6zfshdb said:
I had UHC for 6 years after I retired. my only complaint was, most of my doctors didn't belong to the plan I had and I paid higher out of pocket expenses.
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That is a solid reason not to use UHC. We do a PPO plan rather than HMO. We have been impressed with their national catalog of providers. I got doctor names from relatives in 6 cities across the country and hospitals in all areas we travel regularly. All have been in the catalog; except the dentist we continue to use.
 
PCeBiker said:
Humans are animals too.
Perhaps they all deserve ethical treatment?
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Peta's stance on ALF or other activists deemed terrorists is that that they don't condone the actions of such individuals, but they understand those who commit arson and other acts.
 
I begrudge no one with good coverage, but I have family who work in this industry. A lot of foreigners come here from Canada and elsewhere to get ortho surgeries not covered by their insurance in their home countries. I say if you are 90 and want new knees and can afford them, sure, why not, but Anyone with good coverage should understand there are many paying much higher premiums to your insurer than you are and getting 1/10 the care. That isn't right and everyone knows it.

A lot of people don't know this, but the ACA-Obamacare, actually put caps on how much non profit and for profit HMO's can keep. Apparently some insurers were keeping up to 90% of the money for them selves and only spending 10% on Doctors and patients. These people deserve far worse than what Mr. Thompson got. The doctors aren't complaining because US Doctors are the highest paid in the world, but the working poor and what is left of the middle class have been getting taken advantage of for decades. There is a reason the shooter is becoming a folk hero in real time.

The sad thing is, Universal healthcare isn't coming any time soon. The US has always had a nursing shortage and we don't have nearly enough doctors per citizen. Last time I crunched the numbers, I think Canada has like 1 family doctor per 100 citizens, here in the states it's like 1 family doctor for thousands, not doable. I talk with my doctor about this all the time. They are trying to get around this problem with telephone "nurses" and video visits, but there still aren't enough health workers to make that system work here in the US.

So while many are just trying to stay alive after paying obscene amounts to their insurer, being denied coverage can not only be life changing, it can be a death sentence. My personal opinion, if you put in 8 hours of work, pay your bills and follow the law, you shouldn't lose everything you have, including your life, because you get sick. And yet it happens to too many every single day in this country. Something ugly was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm not expecting a revolution, but I'm not losing any sleep if HMO ceos are losing their's right now.
 
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The current mood across social media and on the streets:
Screenshot 2024-12-06 at 11-42-03 Reddit - https __preview.redd.it_wanna-grab-coffee-sometime-...png

The police now have over a million suspects with "motive". Read here, over a million people lost someone they loved over pennies on the dollar. If they ever find the shooter, unless he has some god awful past, no jury will ever convict him. I also don't think the corporate masters at United want a long drawn out, public accounting of what drove this man to commit murder.

How the populace feels at the moment:
Begging for help you aren't going to get from your hmo-
Elysium-robot-1024x623.png


How the shooter will be remembered if he is found-
tumblr_4377c69f4d134f06b7eb0c1ea89d73c4_8b607026_1280.jpg


How those being asked to help find the shooter feel-
FOiT15HXoAAUV8Y.jpg
 
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At the moment we haven't identified who the shooter was and what their motive was. Until then it doesn't help much to speculate about the situation.

Having said that, my experience with the healthcare system is that people are happy with their healthcare options in inverse proportion to how much healthcare they find themselves needing.
 
inverse proportion.... I don't think those words mean what you think they mean, but I think I know what you mean.

Mr. Coffee, you're a fascist and the revolution will not spare you.

Just kidding. see pic below. I'm not political nor a revolutionary, I'm just a human being, just like you. But please for the love of mike don't say that to a kid with cancer or a veteran or to some one who lost all trying to save either. As a survivor of chronic pain I have some real horror stories, not just about what I went through, but Boomer Vets and ordinary people who were just fine with their insurance until they needed it. Be thankful you are healthy and pray the younger generations show us more compassion than we are showing them now. The following pic is from reddit and was circulated under the heading, "wonder how many people will be passing this bottle around for Thanksgiving? I most certainly didn't, I don't drink, but if I did......

317243336_10160948609791518_2653485069900619608_n.jpg
 
February said:
inverse proportion.... I don't think those words mean what you think they mean, but I think I know what you mean.

Mr. Coffee, you're a fascist and the revolution will not spare you.
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What I specifically mean is that the more you need and use a healthcare provider, the more likely you are to intensely dislike them. And on the other end people who have healthcare they've hardly ever used probably are pretty satisfied with it, especially if it is 100 percent paid by their employer and largely invisible to them.

It is only when you have to navigate the kafkaesque bureaucracy when you are really, really sick that you begin to realize how badly this system we have sucks.

Do not even begin to get me started on how screwed you are if you need emergency health care while you are out of your home state. Much less out of country but at least you can buy travel insurance at additional cost for that -- and my experiences with actually using travel insurance have been pretty decent when I needed it, and boy did I need it a few times. I could only dream that domestic health insurance was as good.
 
I knew what you meant, but I did say I would have a better care with my maths in the future. Relax Mr. Coffee, I know you're good people, I spoke in utter jest.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
Do not even begin to get me started on how screwed you are if you need emergency health care while you are out of your home state.
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Sorry to read more poor healthcare experiences.

Been to the emergency room while out of town 3 times; no different than the 2 times at home.

The only thing that kinda sucks about medicare is loss of international travel insurance. Short term international insurance with the same company we have Medicare Advantage with is fairly painless though.

Being educated with other's concerns; we know if nobody that has had health insurance problems. Some are paying more since ACA though.
 
Some are paying more since ACA though... As well they should, we got all kinds of relief with the ACA. Pregnancy, if you are now willing to die of idiocracy, is no longer a pre-existing condition. You now have the right to see which pharma bros are trying to buy your Doc. ACA is not what anyone wanted, but there were many needed changes it brought about. Still waiting for an alternative from the other side of the isle. Still waiting to hear a peep out of our elected officials on either side. I would say their silence regarding the untimely demise of Brian Thompson speaks volumes.
 
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Because both sides take campaign contributions from the HMOs. They don't want any of that heat. Some of them actually lived through and remember the mob on the 6th of January.
 
February said:
Because both sides take campaign contributions from the HMOs. They don't want any of that heat. Some of them actually lived through and remember the mob on the 6th of January.
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Or, politicians have no reason to comment on a dead guy.
 
Speaking of cases where we pay a lot for poor services... Does it bother any of you that this murder case is getting a lot more attention and resources because of who this guy was. Certainly law enforcement wouldn't put as much effort if a regular guy had been murdered on the street in New Yawk in front of the Hilton.

Also, United Health Care mostly focuses on Medicare Advantage plans, and the murderer (we think) looks like a young guy. So I suspect the story behind the murder is more complex than the health insurance company screwing him over.
 
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