this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2024
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Summary

Reddit’s r/medicine moderators deleted a thread where doctors and users harshly criticized murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Comments, including satirical rejections of insurance claims for gunshot wounds, targeted UHC’s reputation for denying care to boost profits.

Despite the removal, similar discussions continue, with medical professionals condemning UHC’s business practices under Thompson’s leadership, which a Senate report recently criticized for denying post-acute care.

Thompson, shot in what appears to be a targeted attack, led a company notorious for its high claim denial rates, fueling ongoing debates about corporate ethics in healthcare.

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[–] [email protected] 671 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (25 children)

It's kinda hilarious watching billionaire owned media try to suppress the fact that absolutely no one feels bad for the CEO. The same thing happened when some billionaires decided to visit the Titanic, and after the Trump assassination attempt. The memes afterwards were top notch

Everyone is so fed up with this country and the shit is this close 🤏🏼 to the fan

[–] [email protected] 313 points 6 days ago (12 children)

I'm still absolutely flabbergasted at how quickly we all moved on from Trump literally getting clipped in an attempt on his life.

They tried to muster some outrage and solidarity, but most of us just shrugged and went, "Damn. Oh well, maybe next time."

[–] EleventhHour 171 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Then the next time came, and it was even more disappointing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 171 points 6 days ago (3 children)

What was it the IRA told Thatcher? "You have to be lucky every single time. We only have to be lucky once."

[–] OldManBOMBIN 58 points 6 days ago

That's fuckin metal

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[–] A_Random_Idiot 63 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (13 children)

He didnt get clipped. He cut his hand on glass, on the ground, and didnt realize it, then transfered the blood to his head. Thats why his ear was miraculously fully recovered like a week later when he was caught on camera without bandages.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (11 children)

Its also hilarious that lemmy.world admins/mods did the same thing with early threads about this yesterday, nuking individual comments celebrating Thompson's death and 24 hr instance wide banning the users that made those comments, then within 2 hrs they undid the bans, and by today seem to have just given up trying.

https://lemmy.zip/post/27427367

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[–] piskertariot 69 points 6 days ago

Billionaires who own the means of production trying to own the means of communication as well.

When they can't, they'll own the government, and outlaw it.

It's like poetry.

[–] spankmonkey 52 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The US mocked Trump for being shot at, then failed to keep him from being elected again.

Pretty good sign that people are not going to direct that anger towards actually fixing the problems.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Lol, I appreciate that final line in your comment. So many of us were that close back in 2020... Now things are slated to be worse, and I think I speak for at least millions of Americans when I say we are just fucking over it.

When we've tossed out any semblance of justice in our country at the highest levels, literally ruling that the president is immune from all prosecution (you know, like a fucking king), then asshole corpos that indirectly murder countless people getting gunned down doesn't exactly concern us. In fact, this sort of thing genuinely seems more just than what our highest courts are allowing.

Shit is fucked up in this country, and I don't think many of us want to pretend otherwise any longer. I'm not advocating violence, but I definitely don't think I'll lose sleep over this situation.

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[–] [email protected] 348 points 6 days ago (2 children)

One medical doctor, whose identity the Daily Beast confirmed, commented with sympathy for Thompson’s family and said the killer should be charged with murder, but then wondered about the damage the CEO had done.

“I cannot even guess how many person-years UHC has taken from patients and their families through denials,” they wrote. “It has to be on the order of millions. His death won’t make that better, but it’s hard for me to sympathize when so many people have suffered because of his company.”

“What has bothered me the most is people that put «fiduciary responsibility» (eg profits) above human lives, none more so than this company as run by him," wrote another medical doctor, who also spoke to the Daily Beast to confirm their identity. “When other’s human lives are deemed worthless, it is not surprising to have others view your life of no value as well.”

These doctors know what's up.

[–] Snowclone 155 points 6 days ago (7 children)

The level of greed is so much worse than any normal person understands. They do NOTHING. They aren't medical field professionals, they don't need to ever step foot in a hospital or clinic, they only inflate the cost, catastrophelicly with no insurrection, only horribly when you're with them, create endless loopholes to deny coverage with, and use non medical, non trained or consulted opinions and reasoning to justify it, and they are all too educated to not know full well they are lying to get out of paying any bill ever.

Denying someone with crippling medical issues access to treatment with lies and misinformation to shave one more sliver of profit for a parasitic middle man is so many orders of magnitude above evil it's breath taking.

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 6 days ago (5 children)

I have been following the news about Brian Thompson's assassination in New York, and I am astounded by the flood of sympathy the media has poured out for him. Why? This man spent his entire career working tirelessly to deny healthcare to millions of Americans, all in the name of lining his own pockets and enriching shareholders. Yet the media praises him for his "kindness" and "generosity." Let me be clear: pushing your company's claim denial rate to nearly double that of your most cold-hearted competitors, bankrupting families through deceptive fine print and delay tactics, is not kindness, and it is not generosity. No, setting up boiler-room style offices with denial scoreboards is one of the most inhuman things I can imagine.

I spent nearly a decade writing software to help hospital systems fight insurance claim denials, and I can tell you, these insurers are getting better at it every year. They deny even the most justified claims, banking on the fact that most people won't have the energy, resources, or will to fight back. And for the majority, they’re right. We had a team of a dozen nurses and PAs working alongside twice as many analysts. These were people who knew the system inside and out. We knew the deadlines, the bureaucratic jargon, the documentation required, and we tracked every claim meticulously. But even armed with all that knowledge and experience, we couldn’t win them all. On a good month, we might win two-thirds of the denials. That was considered a success.

What’s even worse is that for every claim we fought, there were countless others that never even made it that far, we only got denials on services that actually happened. A patient’s doctor tells them they need surgery, but an insurer like UnitedHealth says no and that’s it. The patient gives up and it is difficult to imagine they get better.

If you've ever had a serious medical condition—and I pray you haven't—you know how much it drains you, how it strips you of your will to do anything. When every moment is agony, you don’t have the strength to sit on hold for hours, fill out endless forms, or chase down a bureaucratic system designed to wear you down. All you want is to sleep, because that's the only place that pain can't find you. How many people have simply lacked the strength to fight back, and ultimately succumbed to their conditions? How many families have been driven into poverty, their lives torn apart by a single emergency, all because of these executives’ policies?

We all know someone who has been through a health insurance nightmare and we also know that while political changes could probably help this problem the reality now is that these people are making a choice to run their companies this way, knowing full well the impact of their greed and indifference.

Where are your tears, your headlines, for the thousands of people and families whose lives have been destroyed and whose loved ones have died because of these same executives?

[–] Shelbyeileen 19 points 6 days ago

I spent 37.5 hours (I document EVERYTHING) on hold with Wellcare trying to get them to pay for Narcolepsy medication I've been on since 2021... "Has the patient tried this ADHD medication, as an alternate?" "No. I prescribed my patient the only FDA approved medication, in the United States that treats Narcolepsy and Cataplexy, and she needs to stay on it". Luckily my doctor is wonderful.

It's draining, but I've learned that the trick is to tell each of the outsourced customer service reps that you have no problem staying on hold for however long it takes. I'm disabled and have that ability. My partner works from home, so I do the same for their Blue Cross. When the insurance companies realize you're willing to fill out ALL their paperwork, appeal higher and higher up, so that well-paid people get involved, clog their phone lines, and keep documenting every step of the way, they'll give you what you want... but it is a full time job. 😮‍💨

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 days ago (2 children)
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[–] SelfProgrammed 229 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe 76 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 days ago

"Rot in poverty" -UHC policy

[–] RangerJosie 143 points 6 days ago (3 children)
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[–] BonesOfTheMoon 55 points 5 days ago

I made a large collection of screenshots from Facebook of people who had their claims denied by United Healthcare today if you want to really see how bad it is.

https://imgur.com/a/yczbSDa

[–] WaxiestSteam69 151 points 6 days ago (12 children)

I was reading an article that quoted his wife about what a great guy he was. It reminded me of Ken Lay's wife talking about her families liquidity problems after the Enron collapse. Hundreds of employees lost everything and she's griping about liquidity.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 6 days ago (3 children)

We had that last year in Ohio when Householder was sentanced to 20 years prison for his roll in the bribery scandal. He cried about hard that was going to be on his family and the judge told him "you should have thought about that before accepting those bribes."

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (10 children)

I saw one that had a different relative say he was an honest person and hard worker.

This honest person's company had $290 billion in insurance premium revenue in 2023 and they had $22 billion in profit. I always knew insurance was a grift but holy fuck.

And the company rewarded him with a $10 million compensation package in 2023. No living person works hard enough in a single year to earn multiple lifetime's of average worker wages.

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[–] Gammelfisch 17 points 5 days ago

Fuck Reddit and the life is cheap US healthcare system.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 6 days ago (19 children)

This is a really uncomfortable situation for me as a user and made me want to use Lemmy even more

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 days ago
[–] xc2215x 97 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Not a great decision from the moderators.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Hopefully, it encourages more platform attrition.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I do think about pitching Lemmy to Redditors annoyed by all this.

But that would require me to

  1. Sign back up on Reddit

  2. Post a comment that may get deleted

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

"We are paid by CEOs. Better side with them."

"You're just a moderator; you don't get paid at all!"

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[–] psycho_driver 75 points 6 days ago (17 children)

At least one of the mods here was going heavy censorship in the initial thread here yesterday. I get it, we aren't supposed to celebrate the death or suffering of other human beings. I'm not sure that rule applied to this individual though.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 days ago (7 children)

Who says we're not supposed to celebrate when an asshole dies? We celebrated for Hitler and Kissinger

Don't self censor. Fuck the mods that censor us celebrating assholes who die by documenting the truth of the harm they've done on Earth

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 days ago (28 children)

Death is always tragic.... I don't care if the guy is a billionaire or not, he or she had family.

I would however agree that having such wealth is clearly perverse and clearly done at the expense of others. You don't get that rich by being kind hearted and generous....

In any case, if you become CEO of a business that has sloppy morals and essentially encourage parasitic behavior.... Don't expect to be loved... Or surprised that you may get shot....

It's like being the CEO of Blackwater.... No one that has clean hands takes that position....

No one becomes a CEO by accident, it was a choice and ambition to become that level of scum...

Now imagine if companies could only give a maximum of around 2000$

I wonder how that would change the landscape of American politics

[–] weeeeum 51 points 6 days ago (8 children)

I feel actions of CEOs and execs undo any empathy they deserve. Hitler had a wife he was loyal to, he was vegetarian as he was sympathetic towards animals and apparently was generous to those around him, but he DOES NOT deserve any empathy.

The damage they caused warrants them zero sympathy. Millions of Americans die due to lack of coverage.

Just my personal take.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

eh, a CEOs family has made their peace with the blood money. like most of us would never even consider marrying someone who is blatantly responsible for thousands of not millions if deaths. so I cant feel sympathy for a partner. I could feel sympathy for young kids, but the guy was 50, so it's fair to assume any kids are at least 18, at which age you either cut contact with a parasite like that or become similar. I guess I just have a hard time feeling sympathy for people who are set for life off of the suffering of others and have never spoken up, attempted to change anything, or just left

edit: typos

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[–] robocall 50 points 6 days ago (3 children)

If Reddit mods (or lemmy mods for that matter) are overwhelmed by the workload of a thread, they should lock it, and clean it up. not delete it!

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[–] Gigasser 70 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Remember if you see this guy... I mean.... No you didn't. No officer I didn't see him at all....

Edit Addendum: Deny. Defend. Depose.

[–] AngryCommieKender 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (26 children)

Lemmy seems to have done the same. At least .world, I dunno about other instances, but I'm looking for a new community.

https://lemmy.world/comment/13815531

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[–] the_toast_is_gone 66 points 6 days ago (26 children)

From a mod of /r/medicine:

People - Please don't make the life of your mods a living hell.

Anything that is celebrating violence is going to get taken down - if not from us, then from reddit. I think all the mods understand that there is a high level of frustration and antipathy towards insurance and insurance execs, but we also understand that murdering people in the streets is not good.

We are a public group of medical professionals, we still need to act like that.

And on a practical note, this man did not create or control the fucked up insurance industry by himself. Other people will take his place and continue to do what he was doing. It's a systemic issue.

[–] [email protected] 141 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (27 children)

Other people will take his place and continue to do what he was doing. It's a systemic issue.

The issue will stay systematic if we dont hold the people who make the decisions in the system accountable. The CEOs decisions directly impacted people, thats not a system thats his choice. Poverty is systematic too, but when a poor person does a crime they have to suffer the consequences of it. God forbid rich criminals see consequences. Mods seem to be arguing he had no agency in his choices which is a lie especially if you compare him to other insurance CEOs

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[–] A_Random_Idiot 60 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

And on a practical note, this man did not create or control the fucked up insurance industry by himself. Other people will take his place and continue to do what he was doing. It’s a systemic issue.

No, but he certainly profited of it, and made it worse for people who had the misfortune of being trapped with united.

Fuck him, and fuck that hangwringing excuse bullshit. Maybe it wont be so systemic if more heads continue to be popped.

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[–] A_Filthy_Weeaboo 52 points 6 days ago (4 children)

"...fueling ongoing debates about corporate ethics in healthcare."

Don't make me fucking laugh 'corporate ethics'

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[–] FlyingSquid 52 points 6 days ago

That's gonna Streisand Effect like crazy.

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 13 points 5 days ago

Is it hypocritical that the "suits" in the LinkedIn posts using the "laugh" emoji are probably some of the same ones making decisions as to which minimum of health care they can get by with to least impact the bottom line of their company? How much cost should be pushed to the employee? The ones that fire an ill employee for missing too much work?

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