I don't approve of Mangione really, but I do have a weird reaction to the shooting:
"Fuck I'm glad he didn't kill a bunch of children or random people instead".
And that thought keeps going through my mind. He made a specific, vocal (in his notes) decision *not* to kill innocent people. He researched building a bomb, and then rejected it because it would harm other people. And it's kind of disturbing to realize, that's a *big* improvement over where we are now otherwise. Fuck it's a big improvement over his target, who didn't give a shit who was injured as long as the line went up.
Fuck.
And as more and more utter industrialized horror comes to light about UHC, I feel myself dehumanizing the CEO guy (even now I can't remember his name) and that bothers me too, but then I read how they systematically, knowingly withhold gold standard treatment and dismantle legally obligated care networks from severely autistic children because it generates a few million dollars in profit for a company that profited 32 billion last year. They destroy lives for like .001% of a profit increase. And the guy knew. He had to know. He had to know and approve of the AI that gives false positive rejections 90%+ of the time to seniors that his company covered because they knew that less than 1% of the group they were preying on would try to resist the denials, even though the company was ultimately in the wrong.
I am aware of the dehumanization- I *feel* myself pushing him away from the title of "fellow human" and am revolted by it. But I also struggle with the enormity of unnecessary harm and viciousness for excess profit that was done. I know people are capable of incredible cruelty, especially when isolated from the consequences of their actions. I guess I don't want to admit that capacity for cruelty in me just waiting for a big enough pile of money. Easier to think there's something "different" about him. Even though I know that's not true. I'm struggling with that.
I also did not realize just how bad UCH specifically and health insurance companies generally really are. And I still wouldn't know it if Mangione hadn't killed the CEO. It's really hard to argue against the efficacy of what he did when what he did was so clearly efficacious
And yeah. I don't want to lose my humanity or cheer for someone's death, I don't want to turn into a ghoul who just wants bad people to suffer, but my god, the depth of evil in this country, in this industry, and the fact that he would have gotten away with it forever, Brian Thompson's form of long-distance violence is totally legal. This isn't a good solution. I hope there are better solutions. It feels like we've already tried most things
Of all the TikToks I watched while writing this (I watched SO MANY) my favorite was the pastor heavily featured in the compilation video. The line "he was a beloved child of God but he was a bad man" really sticks with me
I had originally referenced the Dalai Lama after Osama Bin Laden was killed, then deleted it because I was already meandering, but now that you mention the pastor I'm thinking of it again.
As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader. But, he said, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. ... If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures."
I came home today to this analysis, after driving from one grocery store to another in search of eggs, because *once again* producers have been forced into mass killing of egg-producing hens for the California market thanks to our raging mostly-out-of-the-headlines H5N1 avian flu epidemic. And while I am grateful for having the privilege – for now – of being able to drive all over town to track down some eggs, I can’t escape the thought that this is yet one more thing, if it keeps being repeated, that’s going to destabilize folks just trying to get along and make Christmas cookies for their family.
Too many things coming to a head more-or-less at the same time
Assassinating an insurance executive makes precisely as much sense as killing a messenger. The fundamental problem with medical care in America is that the cost of it steadily inflates faster than regular inflation and has done so for over fifty years. ALL other healthcare problems--especially including insurance practices and policies-- are downstream of that simple matter of fact. The reasons for this excess inflation are incredibly well understood by economists independent of political affiliation. In fact, excess inflation in medical costs is probably one of the best understood economic phenomenon in the history of Western economic theory--with the possible exception of over-inflation in college tuition. So before we go around gunning down CEO's let's all admit that almost nobody among us is actually informed around the simple facts and history of spiraling medical costs. Anybody who investigates this will quickly realize that insurance companies are probably the ONLY institution within the health care complex that does nothing whatsoever to contribute to this problem of excess medical inflation. I shouted out who killed the Kennedy's, when after all it was you and me. If you want to fix the world start with yourself. Let's all please go and read up on why medical costs outpace other costs of living.
You have spectacularly missed the point of this article
That aside: no, I do not think that "you and me" are the reason UHC decided to use an AI program with a 90% error rate to deny people life-saving care. This is the most pernicious kind of lie fed to us by the wealthy and powerful: ignore the system, hate yourself instead! Bootstraps, bootstraps, bootstraps: if you were just a better person you wouldn't have to suffer like this! If you really cared, you'd singlehandedly change the whole system like those superhero movies we keep shoving down your throat every six months or so.
No. Absolutely not. I deserve better, you deserve better, we all deserve better, and I categorically reject any attempt to shift the sins of the people with actual power onto the shoulders of the people the powerful ones hurt
Matt Stoller has a piece on this, the TLDR is that health insurance companies now own pharmacies, employ doctors, own medical facilities etc., so they're not just insurance companies anymore. UHG is the largest employer of physicians in the United States. The analogy he made was that calling UHG an insurance company is like calling Google a web-search company.
Why does this matter? Many examples. NYT recently had a story on how UHG's PBM was directing people to sources of drugs that were orders of magnitude more expensive through their preferred vendor. You'd think it'd be a massive ripoff for them too, but the pharmacy basically gives UHG a cut and they work together to milk the patient. (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/09/health/ftc-pharmacy-benefit-managers-drug-prices.html)
"almost nobody among us is actually informed as to the root cause"
Except for you of course!
"Insurance companies are probably the ONLY institution in the health care complex that does nothing whatsoever to contribute to this problem of excess inflation."
LOL. LMAO.
"I shouted out who killed the Kennedy's, when after all it was you and me"
Literally words spoken by the devil.
"If you want to fix the world start with yourself. "
Sure, medical inflation started a long time ago, and the AMA monopoly on the supply of doctors had something to do with it. But to maintain a rent-seeking system that encompasses almost 20% of GDP, you need to shield it and make it complex. Insurance companies get paid a lot for being the "bad guys," allowing doctors to remain the good guys. Private medical insurance also makes it possible to better balkanize the quality of care that people get. Investment bank. "We'll buy gold-plated insurance for everyone." Firm with mostly low-wage workers, "what's the cheapest plan we can get away with? We'll have to pay management more to make up for the crappy health insurance." And though it started with the AMA monopoly, now that the finance industry has entered the picture, doctors aren't doing as well as they used to. Legions of doctors that used to be their own boss now work for medical groups run by MBAs instead of MDs. There's a lot more than just one thing wrong with the American medical system.
When a system uses complexity to defend monopoly rents, the whole thing starts to look like a Gordian knot. Sooner or later, somebody is going to show up with a sword, and there will probably be an army behind them.
I don't approve of Mangione really, but I do have a weird reaction to the shooting:
"Fuck I'm glad he didn't kill a bunch of children or random people instead".
And that thought keeps going through my mind. He made a specific, vocal (in his notes) decision *not* to kill innocent people. He researched building a bomb, and then rejected it because it would harm other people. And it's kind of disturbing to realize, that's a *big* improvement over where we are now otherwise. Fuck it's a big improvement over his target, who didn't give a shit who was injured as long as the line went up.
Fuck.
And as more and more utter industrialized horror comes to light about UHC, I feel myself dehumanizing the CEO guy (even now I can't remember his name) and that bothers me too, but then I read how they systematically, knowingly withhold gold standard treatment and dismantle legally obligated care networks from severely autistic children because it generates a few million dollars in profit for a company that profited 32 billion last year. They destroy lives for like .001% of a profit increase. And the guy knew. He had to know. He had to know and approve of the AI that gives false positive rejections 90%+ of the time to seniors that his company covered because they knew that less than 1% of the group they were preying on would try to resist the denials, even though the company was ultimately in the wrong.
I am aware of the dehumanization- I *feel* myself pushing him away from the title of "fellow human" and am revolted by it. But I also struggle with the enormity of unnecessary harm and viciousness for excess profit that was done. I know people are capable of incredible cruelty, especially when isolated from the consequences of their actions. I guess I don't want to admit that capacity for cruelty in me just waiting for a big enough pile of money. Easier to think there's something "different" about him. Even though I know that's not true. I'm struggling with that.
I also did not realize just how bad UCH specifically and health insurance companies generally really are. And I still wouldn't know it if Mangione hadn't killed the CEO. It's really hard to argue against the efficacy of what he did when what he did was so clearly efficacious
And yeah. I don't want to lose my humanity or cheer for someone's death, I don't want to turn into a ghoul who just wants bad people to suffer, but my god, the depth of evil in this country, in this industry, and the fact that he would have gotten away with it forever, Brian Thompson's form of long-distance violence is totally legal. This isn't a good solution. I hope there are better solutions. It feels like we've already tried most things
Of all the TikToks I watched while writing this (I watched SO MANY) my favorite was the pastor heavily featured in the compilation video. The line "he was a beloved child of God but he was a bad man" really sticks with me
I had originally referenced the Dalai Lama after Osama Bin Laden was killed, then deleted it because I was already meandering, but now that you mention the pastor I'm thinking of it again.
As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader. But, he said, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. ... If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures."
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
― Antonio Gramsci
Excellent video choices, I really appreciate you putting them all together 🖤
I came home today to this analysis, after driving from one grocery store to another in search of eggs, because *once again* producers have been forced into mass killing of egg-producing hens for the California market thanks to our raging mostly-out-of-the-headlines H5N1 avian flu epidemic. And while I am grateful for having the privilege – for now – of being able to drive all over town to track down some eggs, I can’t escape the thought that this is yet one more thing, if it keeps being repeated, that’s going to destabilize folks just trying to get along and make Christmas cookies for their family.
Too many things coming to a head more-or-less at the same time
I'm still deeply impressed by the explainer video on which rich we need to eat, she does it so well.
The wealthy and powerful intentionally got us to "bloodshed and death" because:
1. They built a publicly funded privately controlled security force (lol it's the cops) and thought they had a monopoly on how violence gets applied.
2. They forgot that asymmetric warfare exists and you can, in fact, download a gun.
Assassinating an insurance executive makes precisely as much sense as killing a messenger. The fundamental problem with medical care in America is that the cost of it steadily inflates faster than regular inflation and has done so for over fifty years. ALL other healthcare problems--especially including insurance practices and policies-- are downstream of that simple matter of fact. The reasons for this excess inflation are incredibly well understood by economists independent of political affiliation. In fact, excess inflation in medical costs is probably one of the best understood economic phenomenon in the history of Western economic theory--with the possible exception of over-inflation in college tuition. So before we go around gunning down CEO's let's all admit that almost nobody among us is actually informed around the simple facts and history of spiraling medical costs. Anybody who investigates this will quickly realize that insurance companies are probably the ONLY institution within the health care complex that does nothing whatsoever to contribute to this problem of excess medical inflation. I shouted out who killed the Kennedy's, when after all it was you and me. If you want to fix the world start with yourself. Let's all please go and read up on why medical costs outpace other costs of living.
You have spectacularly missed the point of this article
That aside: no, I do not think that "you and me" are the reason UHC decided to use an AI program with a 90% error rate to deny people life-saving care. This is the most pernicious kind of lie fed to us by the wealthy and powerful: ignore the system, hate yourself instead! Bootstraps, bootstraps, bootstraps: if you were just a better person you wouldn't have to suffer like this! If you really cared, you'd singlehandedly change the whole system like those superhero movies we keep shoving down your throat every six months or so.
No. Absolutely not. I deserve better, you deserve better, we all deserve better, and I categorically reject any attempt to shift the sins of the people with actual power onto the shoulders of the people the powerful ones hurt
If you want to understand this guy, his top subscription is Bari Weiss.
I'm sure at some point in the past he had "Free thinker" on a bio.
Matt Stoller has a piece on this, the TLDR is that health insurance companies now own pharmacies, employ doctors, own medical facilities etc., so they're not just insurance companies anymore. UHG is the largest employer of physicians in the United States. The analogy he made was that calling UHG an insurance company is like calling Google a web-search company.
Why does this matter? Many examples. NYT recently had a story on how UHG's PBM was directing people to sources of drugs that were orders of magnitude more expensive through their preferred vendor. You'd think it'd be a massive ripoff for them too, but the pharmacy basically gives UHG a cut and they work together to milk the patient. (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/09/health/ftc-pharmacy-benefit-managers-drug-prices.html)
"almost nobody among us is actually informed as to the root cause"
Except for you of course!
"Insurance companies are probably the ONLY institution in the health care complex that does nothing whatsoever to contribute to this problem of excess inflation."
LOL. LMAO.
"I shouted out who killed the Kennedy's, when after all it was you and me"
Literally words spoken by the devil.
"If you want to fix the world start with yourself. "
Oh so it's *our* fault.
Sure, medical inflation started a long time ago, and the AMA monopoly on the supply of doctors had something to do with it. But to maintain a rent-seeking system that encompasses almost 20% of GDP, you need to shield it and make it complex. Insurance companies get paid a lot for being the "bad guys," allowing doctors to remain the good guys. Private medical insurance also makes it possible to better balkanize the quality of care that people get. Investment bank. "We'll buy gold-plated insurance for everyone." Firm with mostly low-wage workers, "what's the cheapest plan we can get away with? We'll have to pay management more to make up for the crappy health insurance." And though it started with the AMA monopoly, now that the finance industry has entered the picture, doctors aren't doing as well as they used to. Legions of doctors that used to be their own boss now work for medical groups run by MBAs instead of MDs. There's a lot more than just one thing wrong with the American medical system.
When a system uses complexity to defend monopoly rents, the whole thing starts to look like a Gordian knot. Sooner or later, somebody is going to show up with a sword, and there will probably be an army behind them.