When the gangland assassination of a 50-year-old husband and father inspires jokes about karma instead of empathy, perhaps the egregious "system" he led as CEO of United Healthcare is to blame.
I agree with this. As someone who works for the insurance industry, it's....not great, even working for a non-profit insurer. I also found myself wondering about the amount of coverage given to the assassination of a wealthy white man, when poor, often black, men are killed every day, and we don't hear anything about those tragedies, or about the children they leave behind. The wealth at the top of the healthcare system is such an obvious moral crisis in our country.
If they do catch the murderer (avenger?), think how hard it will be to find an impartial jury! And think of the people that will say they are impartial-- just to help the guy get off.
Both essays are excellent, but the one from 2022 is staggering. Thank you for the research, your testimony, your grit, and your beautiful writing, Deb. 🤍
Oh, Deb. I cracked up when I read "Was it you?" When I found out that the guy who was shot (in front of the hotel where I stayed in September) was the head of an insurance company, my immediate thought was that the shooter was a disgruntled patient (not you, though: I didn't know the particulars at the time). At just about the time you published this essay, I was crowing about "Ladyparts" in my annual book talk to a local Rotary club. I wish I'd known about the essay, but I hope the Rotarians will check out your Substack and find it on their own (I crowed about the Substack, too). It feels a little icky to feel like someone's death was karma, but there you go: I feel that way. I like the way you put it, that you feel for them the same way you feel "for any family dealing with the untimely death of a loved one due to health insurance greed."
I could just see him asking you! That's what made me laugh so hard. (I probably would have asked, too...) I was so touched that they ran that pic in the CNN story. I loved it—I mean, that's how Bridget and I looked when we saw her in April, too. There was a lot of hugging, a lot of closeness. And I loved the composition—how fuzzy and black and white it was, with those stained glass windows shining some light and hope over the scene. It spoke volumes. The whole part about Bridget and Townsend was so moving. (The whole story was, really.) XO
Deb--you know I admire your work but this piece today feels off -- to me. I am no fan of big health insurance companies and have lived through hard times dealing with them when my parents were sick and dying, BUT there is something about reveling in the death of any human being -- and especially one you do not personally know -- who is someone's son, someone's husband and someone's father. It feels as mean as our climate today.
I agree with you. AND I’m being honest about my feelings and reactions and trying to understand why they occurred. Not just with me internally. But with so many Americans. I’m not reveling in his death. I’m asking myself why I did not feel more upset about it. And why Americans are piling on. It’s unusual for me to feel so unmoved by the death of another human. But I think it stems from how unmoved United has been to so many of us at our weakest moments of need. That company has lined their pockets with untimely, unnecessary deaths. There’s something uniquely ghoulish about profiting off of so many people’s pain. I wanted to show that contradiction between my initial reaction and the one that followed. Thanks for your comment. I’ll be interested to learn who the hit man was and why he did it.
I think it’s the difference between our all too human and emotional desire for payback and our better selves. the death of this man will not fix healthcare, but it feels like payback.
I remember when Reagan was shot / I was in high school / and I was giddy. I loathed Reagan. I also remember that My mother - an AIDS social worker - schooled me like never before. She reminded me of my humanity and his.
Someone’s husband. The wife’s been estranged and apparently wont cry over his coffin. Numerous drunk driving tickets. He was a blood sucker and just bc he’s dead doesn’t make him an innocent player in the game of life. The United Health Care scam is evil. do educate yourself. The cold hearted money grubber used robots to cancel people insurance when it was badly needed to save the lives of their children their wives mothers and fathers. B Thompson was lining his pockets with peoples suffering. These are the times we the people need to develop our own 5 senses to see and smell the truth.
I think it would be a fascinating moral philosophy class -- who is so monstrous that their assassination is justified? If you are anti-death penalty as I am, not many-- and this is not the same as not wanting to see legal justice for crimes committed. I find this area of morality interesting and complicated. We live in a capitalist system that allows this for-profit shitty version of health care with no public option. We do not follow the Europeans. I agree that we need massive change -- but the slaughter of the individual will never give me joy. Remember ACT UP -- extraordinary, proactive activism that did not gun people down (much as people may have wanted to). I want to live in a world of laws and advocacy. I have been a public health writer/ advocate my entire life, working to help universities bring health care to the underserved in the U.S. and globally (Planned Parenthood, Columbia Univ., etc..). I am educated, and I do not apologize for questioning the value of murder as the solution to serious public health policy issues, even if I understand the emotional response I see from you and so many others.
Educated people will talk calmly and endlessly about “the need for massive change”. it seems to make some folks feel more stable or a tad more superior to the compassionate less educated humans who reckon there is no more time to let the blood suckers keep taking and using and getting away with murder. United Health is guilty of murder. But tte system doesn’t see it that wAy. So how does that sit with you? Thanks for your response.
Respectfully Ruth, the entire system is corrupt beyond words or repair. What will another study accomplish? They are costly, take years to finish. right now insurance companies are drowning in lawsuits bc of payback cyberattacks, and bc of their criminal malicious indifference to the suffering of the sick and dying. United Health Care is the worst insurance provider. a scam operation. why is it still in business.? why are the shareholders making huge profits if the product is so contaminated?
It’s fine to discuss and debate moral issues but that won’t save lives / change is needed now.
This sounds like it was written by a PR team. And so you were right Ruth, about making judgements with out the facts. He is a good husband and father. He didn’t deserve to die like that.
Well-insured European here: There is just something *wrong* about the head of a major health insurer spending his time addressing investor conferences (why this family man from Minnesota was in front of the midtown Hilton at that hour).
My European spouse and I talked last night about why this shooting was so shocking to us. (He grew up in W Germany, where business executives were kidnapped and assassinated in the 70s and 80s, so…) First, that it was clearly an assassination. Was the shooter was directly affected by United’s bad business? Or was he hired by someone who is? Either way, it was a professional hit. Second, “follow the money” is such a convoluted trail here. It is not just for-profit health care at fault here, but the entire broken system that gives employers tax incentives to “provide” insurance coverage. Employees “lucky” enough to have insurance have no choice in where or how they are insured: money changes hands with no effect on medical outcomes. Third, too many people have easy access to guns in the US (yeah, that old trope).
I grew up in the US and one of my jobs (before turning to journalism and leaving) was in hospital admin, as a kind of ombudsperson helping AIDS patients in the late 1980s get their treatments coordinated, booked, and paid for— so I know of what you speak. And it is humiliating that in 40 years, in one of the world’s richest countries, nothing has improved.
This preamble and included reprint definitely humanize the problem. More victims need to tell their stories. It’s been obvious to me for a long time that the medical industrial complex is harmful—and crumbling on top of its own shaky scaffolding. It seems we all take turns playing roulette when we need to go in for care. What will be the key to improving it? Dismantling it could be a period of chaos, but maybe it’s necessary/inevitable.
As a pancreatic cancer survivor who has had a veritable shit-ton of complications nearly 15 years after my original treatment, I am super fortunate to have never had an insurance denial that delayed my treatment. And I am doubly insured, which, of course, puts me in an extremely fortunate position (both BCBS PPO plans). BUT - I still get all sorts of little issues that pop up continually. For example, I will be having a Mohs procedure in a week to remove a basal cell carcinoma from my forehead. And I received a ‘Rivet’ quote for what I would owe, which is non-zero according to Rivet because it calculated my secondary insurance payment incorrectly. So now I have to fork out money before my procedure and then I’ll get a reimbursement. Annoying since I do have the money. But what if I didn’t?? It’s death by a thousand cuts.
Death by a thousand cuts is correct. And wow, it's so rare to be able to call oneself a pancreatic cancer survivor! My dad was diagnosed with it in August of 2008 and died exactlly four months later to the day. He was 67. In the prime of his life.
Story: At one month shy of 28, pregnant, eating healthy, no drugs, I suffered from headache and swollen legs. But no albumen in my urine - that had just been checked cause I was in my ninth month. A day after the advice from my Beth Israel ob-gyns to take two aspirin and elevate my legs, I found myself tied down having a grand mal seizure at Beth Israel because my then-husband had long hair and sported a headband. We were hippies and my seizure was drug-related, the wise doctors believed. Outcome: After 24 hours of my screaming to be untied, they decided to do an emergency C-section. Baby and I both lived. Seizures stopped. She is fine (I fervently hope). I am left with a shrunken hippocampus and a lifelong seizure disorder requiring failing medication.
It was acute fulminating eclampsia, usually seen in third world countries (or on Downton Abbey when Sybil died of it). It also means the tendency to pre-eclampsia is passed from mother (me) to (my) daughter (she had a severe case) and (maybe ) my granddaughters. There is no research, to my knowledge, why this tendency appears to be inherited.
It is.
I agree with this. As someone who works for the insurance industry, it's....not great, even working for a non-profit insurer. I also found myself wondering about the amount of coverage given to the assassination of a wealthy white man, when poor, often black, men are killed every day, and we don't hear anything about those tragedies, or about the children they leave behind. The wealth at the top of the healthcare system is such an obvious moral crisis in our country.
I was thinking exactly that!
Exactly!
This journalist impresses me. Facts and analysis and hope
https://apple.news/AfpzpGBR8Q6iN7cWdDIcnNQ
If they do catch the murderer (avenger?), think how hard it will be to find an impartial jury! And think of the people that will say they are impartial-- just to help the guy get off.
I’m so curious to find out who did this and why.
write a book. only you could do it with verve and style. this is your baby darling.
Both essays are excellent, but the one from 2022 is staggering. Thank you for the research, your testimony, your grit, and your beautiful writing, Deb. 🤍
Thanks, Shannon.
I am outraged on your behalf and for all the people being victimized by our healthcare system.
Oh, Deb. I cracked up when I read "Was it you?" When I found out that the guy who was shot (in front of the hotel where I stayed in September) was the head of an insurance company, my immediate thought was that the shooter was a disgruntled patient (not you, though: I didn't know the particulars at the time). At just about the time you published this essay, I was crowing about "Ladyparts" in my annual book talk to a local Rotary club. I wish I'd known about the essay, but I hope the Rotarians will check out your Substack and find it on their own (I crowed about the Substack, too). It feels a little icky to feel like someone's death was karma, but there you go: I feel that way. I like the way you put it, that you feel for them the same way you feel "for any family dealing with the untimely death of a loved one due to health insurance greed."
Townsend was so deadpan about it. Still makes me laugh. And thanks for your support! Did you see the photo of you in the CNN story?
I could just see him asking you! That's what made me laugh so hard. (I probably would have asked, too...) I was so touched that they ran that pic in the CNN story. I loved it—I mean, that's how Bridget and I looked when we saw her in April, too. There was a lot of hugging, a lot of closeness. And I loved the composition—how fuzzy and black and white it was, with those stained glass windows shining some light and hope over the scene. It spoke volumes. The whole part about Bridget and Townsend was so moving. (The whole story was, really.) XO
Deb--you know I admire your work but this piece today feels off -- to me. I am no fan of big health insurance companies and have lived through hard times dealing with them when my parents were sick and dying, BUT there is something about reveling in the death of any human being -- and especially one you do not personally know -- who is someone's son, someone's husband and someone's father. It feels as mean as our climate today.
I agree with you. AND I’m being honest about my feelings and reactions and trying to understand why they occurred. Not just with me internally. But with so many Americans. I’m not reveling in his death. I’m asking myself why I did not feel more upset about it. And why Americans are piling on. It’s unusual for me to feel so unmoved by the death of another human. But I think it stems from how unmoved United has been to so many of us at our weakest moments of need. That company has lined their pockets with untimely, unnecessary deaths. There’s something uniquely ghoulish about profiting off of so many people’s pain. I wanted to show that contradiction between my initial reaction and the one that followed. Thanks for your comment. I’ll be interested to learn who the hit man was and why he did it.
I think it’s the difference between our all too human and emotional desire for payback and our better selves. the death of this man will not fix healthcare, but it feels like payback.
I remember when Reagan was shot / I was in high school / and I was giddy. I loathed Reagan. I also remember that My mother - an AIDS social worker - schooled me like never before. She reminded me of my humanity and his.
Someone’s husband. The wife’s been estranged and apparently wont cry over his coffin. Numerous drunk driving tickets. He was a blood sucker and just bc he’s dead doesn’t make him an innocent player in the game of life. The United Health Care scam is evil. do educate yourself. The cold hearted money grubber used robots to cancel people insurance when it was badly needed to save the lives of their children their wives mothers and fathers. B Thompson was lining his pockets with peoples suffering. These are the times we the people need to develop our own 5 senses to see and smell the truth.
I think it would be a fascinating moral philosophy class -- who is so monstrous that their assassination is justified? If you are anti-death penalty as I am, not many-- and this is not the same as not wanting to see legal justice for crimes committed. I find this area of morality interesting and complicated. We live in a capitalist system that allows this for-profit shitty version of health care with no public option. We do not follow the Europeans. I agree that we need massive change -- but the slaughter of the individual will never give me joy. Remember ACT UP -- extraordinary, proactive activism that did not gun people down (much as people may have wanted to). I want to live in a world of laws and advocacy. I have been a public health writer/ advocate my entire life, working to help universities bring health care to the underserved in the U.S. and globally (Planned Parenthood, Columbia Univ., etc..). I am educated, and I do not apologize for questioning the value of murder as the solution to serious public health policy issues, even if I understand the emotional response I see from you and so many others.
Educated people will talk calmly and endlessly about “the need for massive change”. it seems to make some folks feel more stable or a tad more superior to the compassionate less educated humans who reckon there is no more time to let the blood suckers keep taking and using and getting away with murder. United Health is guilty of murder. But tte system doesn’t see it that wAy. So how does that sit with you? Thanks for your response.
Respectfully Ruth, the entire system is corrupt beyond words or repair. What will another study accomplish? They are costly, take years to finish. right now insurance companies are drowning in lawsuits bc of payback cyberattacks, and bc of their criminal malicious indifference to the suffering of the sick and dying. United Health Care is the worst insurance provider. a scam operation. why is it still in business.? why are the shareholders making huge profits if the product is so contaminated?
It’s fine to discuss and debate moral issues but that won’t save lives / change is needed now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/nyregion/unitedhealthcare-brian-thompson-funeral.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
This sounds like it was written by a PR team. And so you were right Ruth, about making judgements with out the facts. He is a good husband and father. He didn’t deserve to die like that.
Well-insured European here: There is just something *wrong* about the head of a major health insurer spending his time addressing investor conferences (why this family man from Minnesota was in front of the midtown Hilton at that hour).
My European spouse and I talked last night about why this shooting was so shocking to us. (He grew up in W Germany, where business executives were kidnapped and assassinated in the 70s and 80s, so…) First, that it was clearly an assassination. Was the shooter was directly affected by United’s bad business? Or was he hired by someone who is? Either way, it was a professional hit. Second, “follow the money” is such a convoluted trail here. It is not just for-profit health care at fault here, but the entire broken system that gives employers tax incentives to “provide” insurance coverage. Employees “lucky” enough to have insurance have no choice in where or how they are insured: money changes hands with no effect on medical outcomes. Third, too many people have easy access to guns in the US (yeah, that old trope).
I grew up in the US and one of my jobs (before turning to journalism and leaving) was in hospital admin, as a kind of ombudsperson helping AIDS patients in the late 1980s get their treatments coordinated, booked, and paid for— so I know of what you speak. And it is humiliating that in 40 years, in one of the world’s richest countries, nothing has improved.
Well said.
This preamble and included reprint definitely humanize the problem. More victims need to tell their stories. It’s been obvious to me for a long time that the medical industrial complex is harmful—and crumbling on top of its own shaky scaffolding. It seems we all take turns playing roulette when we need to go in for care. What will be the key to improving it? Dismantling it could be a period of chaos, but maybe it’s necessary/inevitable.
As a pancreatic cancer survivor who has had a veritable shit-ton of complications nearly 15 years after my original treatment, I am super fortunate to have never had an insurance denial that delayed my treatment. And I am doubly insured, which, of course, puts me in an extremely fortunate position (both BCBS PPO plans). BUT - I still get all sorts of little issues that pop up continually. For example, I will be having a Mohs procedure in a week to remove a basal cell carcinoma from my forehead. And I received a ‘Rivet’ quote for what I would owe, which is non-zero according to Rivet because it calculated my secondary insurance payment incorrectly. So now I have to fork out money before my procedure and then I’ll get a reimbursement. Annoying since I do have the money. But what if I didn’t?? It’s death by a thousand cuts.
Death by a thousand cuts is correct. And wow, it's so rare to be able to call oneself a pancreatic cancer survivor! My dad was diagnosed with it in August of 2008 and died exactlly four months later to the day. He was 67. In the prime of his life.
Story: At one month shy of 28, pregnant, eating healthy, no drugs, I suffered from headache and swollen legs. But no albumen in my urine - that had just been checked cause I was in my ninth month. A day after the advice from my Beth Israel ob-gyns to take two aspirin and elevate my legs, I found myself tied down having a grand mal seizure at Beth Israel because my then-husband had long hair and sported a headband. We were hippies and my seizure was drug-related, the wise doctors believed. Outcome: After 24 hours of my screaming to be untied, they decided to do an emergency C-section. Baby and I both lived. Seizures stopped. She is fine (I fervently hope). I am left with a shrunken hippocampus and a lifelong seizure disorder requiring failing medication.
Daily medication, not failing.
It was acute fulminating eclampsia, usually seen in third world countries (or on Downton Abbey when Sybil died of it). It also means the tendency to pre-eclampsia is passed from mother (me) to (my) daughter (she had a severe case) and (maybe ) my granddaughters. There is no research, to my knowledge, why this tendency appears to be inherited.