High-profile killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York

surf said:
My spouse ran up medical charges of well over half a million dollars during the last 10 months of her life. This was several years ago. Medical providers in the US charge exorbitantly high prices. Her health insurance more or less covered the costs but you can see why insurance premiums are set so high in order to make the numbers work (and build in a nice little profit for Thompson et al).

Medical providers, drug companies and health insurance companies are all part of the problem because they are run to make money instead of providing a service. From my observations, health care in the US is excellent quality but poor value for money.
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Broadly you are correct though there are many non-profit providers, my local hospital is one of them but even then the costs are sky high

Almost a decade ago I had foot surgery that required a week in hospital, I also had a vacumn type pump to aid recovery (I had a toe amputated) that required a nurse home visit 3x a week for 2-3 months

The weeks stay in hospital was billed at $35K and didn't include the surgery cost, at the time, the vacumn thing was rented at something like $1800 a week, the nurse was someting like $300 a visit (25 mins work + travel)

I calculated the total cost billed to the insurance for everything came to about $250K

By chance I'd had a hernia surgery earlier in the year so I met my annual deductible pretty quickly, I think of that $250K I actually paid about $1500 of it!
 
Fortitude said:
There was a Louis Theroux episode many moons ago that covered this. In it, a person had been knocked over I think, and came to in the ambulance. Once able to register where they were, they asked to be let out the ambulance because they could not hope to cover the fees at the hospital. I had never seen anything like it, but it brought home the chasm in lived experience for those in America who don’t have healthcare insurance. Just insane.
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What has happened here is that hospitals will have a trauma care level. https://www.amtrauma.org/page/traumalevels
Those levels are evaluated by the American College of Surgeons. If someone is brought in like you said, hit by a car, bleeding on the brain, hospitals are required by law (EMTALA 1986) to provide care and stabilize the patient. Allegedly hospitals in emergencies are not allowed to ask if you have insurance or are a citizen - they are supposed to treat you and then the county gets stuck with the bill. However, they find ways around this, and end up saying the victim needs a Level 1 Trauma center, so they "stabilize" them (i.e., stop the bleeding) then put them back in the ambulance and send them on their merry way.

Even with health insurance, an ambulance ride can cost the person $500 - $1,000. In CA the median bill for an ambulance ride with insurance is $1,200. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ambulance-surprise-medical-bill-balance-billing-state/)

Personal anecdote: In my late teens I got into a fight with 2 people and lost. One of them hit me with a wrench several times (*explains everything). I went to the ER literally dripping blood on the floor and told them only my first name. I had on a white t-shirt so the effect was even more dramatic. They had to put in three sets of stitches (took them 4 hours) and I didn't bring an ID, so there was no bill. That's basically the only way to do it without insurance.
 
surf said:
My spouse ran up medical charges of well over half a million dollars during the last 10 months of her life. This was several years ago. Medical providers in the US charge exorbitantly high prices. Her health insurance more or less covered the costs but you can see why insurance premiums are set so high in order to make the numbers work (and build in a nice little profit for Thompson et al).

Medical providers, drug companies and health insurance companies are all part of the problem because they are run to make money instead of providing a service. From my observations, health care in the US is excellent quality but poor value for money.
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With bills like that, it must have been an awful ordeal. Sorry for your loss.
 
Red in STL said:
Broadly you are correct though there are many non-profit providers, my local hospital is one of them but even then the costs are sky high

Almost a decade ago I had foot surgery that required a week in hospital, I also had a vacumn type pump to aid recovery (I had a toe amputated) that required a nurse home visit 3x a week for 2-3 months

The weeks stay in hospital was billed at $35K and didn't include the surgery cost, at the time, the vacumn thing was rented at something like $1800 a week, the nurse was someting like $300 a visit (25 mins work + travel)

I calculated the total cost billed to the insurance for everything came to about $250K

By chance I'd had a hernia surgery earlier in the year so I met my annual deductible pretty quickly, I think of that $250K I actually paid about $1500 of it!
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?! what happened ?
 
Definitely going in my fantasy death squad for 2025, if he isn't suicided before then.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
What has happened here is that hospitals will have a trauma care level. https://www.amtrauma.org/page/traumalevels
Those levels are evaluated by the American College of Surgeons. If someone is brought in like you said, hit by a car, bleeding on the brain, hospitals are required by law (EMTALA 1986) to provide care and stabilize the patient. Allegedly hospitals in emergencies are not allowed to ask if you have insurance or are a citizen - they are supposed to treat you and then the county gets stuck with the bill. However, they find ways around this, and end up saying the victim needs a Level 1 Trauma center, so they "stabilize" them (i.e., stop the bleeding) then put them back in the ambulance and send them on their merry way.

Even with health insurance, an ambulance ride can cost the person $500 - $1,000. In CA the median bill for an ambulance ride with insurance is $1,200. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ambulance-surprise-medical-bill-balance-billing-state/)

Personal anecdote: In my late teens I got into a fight with 2 people and lost. One of them hit me with a wrench several times (*explains everything). I went to the ER literally dripping blood on the floor and told them only my first name. I had on a white t-shirt so the effect was even more dramatic. They had to put in three sets of stitches (took them 4 hours) and I didn't bring an ID, so there was no bill. That's basically the only way to do it without insurance.
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Everything about this is such a disconnect. I do think we take the NHS for granted and it’s unfathomable for many to even imagine parlaying health with cost. I was ignorant to the things you were saying until I saw that episode. Since then, we’ve needed to use insurance in Europe for a serious incident. In it, an elbow needed to be reconstructed and aftercare applied. The itemised bill was £30k. I’m aware that by US standards, that’s pennies, but such things frame how costs spiral if you’re not covered and are in a country that doesn’t provide free healthcare.

I can imagine how hardwired it is for those without cover to be as on the ball as you were whenever hospitals enter the fray.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
?! what happened ?
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Had an ulcer on my foot that got infected and went gangrenous, the ulcer was 'hidden' under a callus on the sole of my foot so I had no idea about it until it was too late, the bone was infected so the chopped off my pinky toe, I was apparently lucky, another few days and I would have likely lost most of my foot, I was on 2 high dose intravenous antibiotics for a week
 
Im still reeling from the news that the minimum wage in some places is $7.25/ hour. What the hell is that about?
 
NicolaSacco said:
Im still reeling from the news that the minimum wage in some places is $7.25/ hour. What the hell is that about?
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That's the Federal minimum, but if you are 'tipped' staff it can be as low as $3-4
 
Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful
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Kaos said:
Something I've read from a killer that resonates with me. Refreshing from all the race war or incel nonsense you read from other lone wolf politically charged murderers.
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That's why I'm surprised these things don't happen more often. The motivation is very popular, now the act isn't reasonable but there is a lot of unreasonable people.
 
Just had a look at what my €35 a month prescription would cost if I was living in the States.... around $700 a month :eek:
 
"Luigi's Manifesto"

Nintendo's lawyers are looking around nervously.

Is this going to get memed? It looks primed.
 
Fortitude said:
Is this going to get memed? It looks primed.
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9dc6da.gif
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I cannot stress how insane it is that anyone thought you needed thrice weekly physio sessions to rehab from a ACL operation at $400 a pop. Every time I read about a breakdown of costs from American healthcare it’s like someone is taking the piss.
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Exactly this.

A common one is how the insurers cap the anaesthetists time. Do people think it's because they want you to wake up mid operation? No, it's because they know the providers will take the piss. United Health's net margin is half the SP500 average.

I think in Europe we're conditioned that medics can do no wrong therefore the insurers must be the bad guys, but it's not like that in the states. All of them are in it together. The providers whack the prices up, the insurers bat them back down, and the public gets squeezed in the middle.
 
They were just interviewing one of his friend who said Luigi couldn't have physical relationships because of his back injury. Apparently it was too painful for him to have any sexual relationships. In addition to that his mom reported him missing two weeks prior to the incident.
 
Scarlett Dracarys said:
They were just interviewing one of his friend who said Luigi couldn't have physical relationships because of his back injury. Apparently it was too painful for him to have any sexual relationships. In addition to that his mom reported him missing two weeks prior to the incident.
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crazy that he manages to walk around shooting people then
 
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