by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Are we supposed to be shocked that someone was just gunned down on the streets of New York City? The truth is that this happens all the time. Violence is out of control in the Big Apple, and of course the exact same thing could be said about most of our other major cities. According to the FBI, more than 14 million crimes were committed in the United States last year. The only reason why everybody is suddenly making a big deal about this is because someone “important” got shot. Our society is dominated by large corporations, and so when the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the healthcare industry gets gunned down it is going to make news…
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The CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division was gunned down Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown in what police called a “brazen, targeted” attack.
Brian Thompson, 50, was repeatedly shot by a masked gunman about 6:46 a.m. who had been lying in wait outside the Sixth Avenue hotel, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said.
It definitely appears that the shooter was waiting for someone very specific.
And we are being told that all signs point to “a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack”…
“I want to be clear at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference Wednesday following the shooting.
“This does not appear to be a random act of violence,” she said, adding that the department is carrying out a full investigation.
Thompson, 50, led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. He was on the way to UnitedHealth Group’s investor day set for Wednesday at 8 a.m. ET at the Hilton, the NYPD said. The company canceled that event after the shooting.
So why would someone want to kill the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division?
As I write this article, a manhunt for the suspect is still underway, and so authorities have not been able to question him yet.
But I have a theory.
My theory is that the shooter is probably someone that had a claim denied by UnitedHealth.
In recent years, UnitedHealth has earned a reputation for unfairly denying claims…
UnitedHealthcare was being probed by the Department of Justice for alleged antitrust violations, while its parent company, UnitedHealthcare Group (UHG), has come under fire from angry patients who claim the insurer refused to cover their care.
UHG is the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate. The company expected to bring in revenues of $450 billion in 2025, with Thompson believed to earn a salary in the region of $10million a year.
In July, more than 150 protesters from the People’s Action Institute campaign group gathered outside UHG’s headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, in what became a fiery demonstration.
In fact, it is being alleged that the company even relies on AI to deny some claims even though there has been a very high error rate…
UnitedHealthcare was also accused of using AI to deny claims for post-acute care services in Medicare Advantage in a lawsuit slated earlier this month, according to Fierce Healthcare.
The proposed class action was filed by families of two senior Medicare Advantage members who died after the insurer allegedly used the NaviHealth platform illegally to reject care, as UHG profits ballooned.
According to the lawsuit, the technology has a ’90 percent error rate, and the company relies on patient complacency or lack of knowledge about the systems to keep using it.
Denying as many claims as possible has become a core part of the business model for many insurance companies in recent years.
When their claims are denied, many Americans do not have the resources to hire a lawyer and challenge those decisions in court.
I truly detest what has happened to our healthcare system. Greed reigns supreme, and vast numbers of Americans are not getting the coverage that they paid for month after month.
The NYPD is going to go all out to catch the shooter in this case, and that is because Brian Thompson is a big deal.
But what about the countless other victims that never have their cases solved?
As I discussed the other day, crime in New York City is spiking dramatically…
The Upper West Side has devolved into a Wild West atmosphere where anything goes, terrified crime victims and neighbors begging for more cops told The Post.
Criminals are more emboldened than ever in the ritzy nabe — with robberies soaring over 30% compared to last year — and carjackers so brazen they flashed their guns without concern on consecutive Sundays in broad daylight.
“I have never felt so scared in this neighborhood the way I feel now,” one of the carjacking victims told The Post this week.
Sadly, similar conditions prevail in most of our other major cities.
In Washington D.C., Amazon has actually altered delivery procedures in two of the most dangerous zip codes because there have been so many “targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages”…
“We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Nantel said in a statement. “In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
Many years ago, I would walk the streets of Washington D.C. with little fear.
Needless to say, those days are long gone.
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