Did insurance company executive Brian Thompson deserve to be murdered? The New Yorker can't quite decide. But Jordan Neely - a violent psychotic criminal - is a “subway dancer.”
The people that pass for journalists today see the entire world in an oppressor/victim and black/white reductionist narrative dynamic. No room for facts that don’t fit or other interpretations. We must stop paying for this morally bankrupt garbage and they need to go find honest work.
They're narcissistic aristocrat's at court inside the palace gates.
Their primary tactic is to divide people into increasingly smaller groups of victims and oppressors, turn us against one another and, when we call them out on it they resort to projection and blame us for their own actions!
But don't worry. The gigs up.
We're kicking them out...to the curb. It's over and not a minute too soon. Expect the cacophony of tantrums to dial up to 11.
IGNORE THEM....unless you're going to mock them.
If you mock them, mock them until they cry...and then mock them for crying.
Let them melt down in their own pooh. They deserve it!
Sadly, not everyone ignores them. Communists, socialists, progressives, whatever they call themselves, will never quit trying to ascend to power by any and all means. Always expose them, mock them, make fun of them. Their tactics and goals remain the same: a totalitarian society dedicated to the destruction of wealth, culture, law, and civilization.
I think the shift is happening. Slowly but surely it's happening. The fact that people like Alex have a platform and can reach millions in a sense shows that the old narrative is slowly but surely crumbling.
my favorite was when they said it was fine to violate covid lockdowns to riot for george floyd en masse, but if your neighbor has a bbq with more than the immediate family you should snitch on them.
Don't forget the millions of immigrants who were allowed to stream across the border without covid vaccinations while American citizens were fired from their jobs for refusing them.
Thanks for the link. It's my laugh for the day. Liberalism has been called a mental illness for years. Covid proved beyond all doubt that it is. Don't feel sorry for Taylor using her "own money" to covid proof her book launch. She comes from a wealthy family in Old Greenwich CT.
Kurt, I wholeheartedly agree with your excellent comment, but I would change the third sentence to read as follows: “We must stop viewing these morally bankrupt ‘journalists’ as fellow human beings.”
They are the ones calling us everything from deplorables to garbage. Our strength is accepting them and tolerating that they have batshit crazy ideas. They went nuts as a group but regain sanity one at a time. We have open arms to welcome them, when they awaken, become unwoke and join us. They already are. The pace will pick up. And they are never going back.
Having a ready-made framework for understanding any conflict - approved by the remaining readers - makes identifying a relatable angle easy. This is important when you aren't a particularly clever writer. New Yorker needs a billionaire angel like The Atlantic. It was once a great read. Now it's dull and predictable as is the present day Atlantic.
Tolentino would be the first one on a subway train with a deranged rider to cower in a corner and pray that someone like Penny would appear. She is a coward hiding behind the safety of her desk.
Thats because she thinks we're undifferentiated masses of meat.
Worry not, as Elon says:
We are the media now.
The broken MSM no longer controls the narrative. Alternative information sources are ascending; no amount of pompous punditry is going to convince an irate public that their lived experience is a figment of their imagination. Journalisim has slipped its leash and is running amok.
They just don't quite get the power of "distributed swarm networks" that can blow their narrative up within minutes.
Despite the screaming that they are afraid of Trump and MAGA, the truth is they have always been terrified of each other. They know what their fellow cult members are capable of. Ms Tolentino and her ilk are not sure of the correct swarm answer any more; thus the question mark in the headline and the tentative tone of her article. They are on a tightrope, terrified of falling into the abyss they created.
I know that this is almost beside the point, but here goes: After my uncle retired, like many people who belong to AARP, he chose UnitedHealthcare as his secondary insurance to supplement Medicare. My uncle had the worst form of Crohn's disease & heart problems, to boot. When he passed away in 2016 I went through all his papers, which included explanation of benefits notices.
Apparently, UnitedHealthcare covered virtually all his medical expenses after Medicare paid its share - for 15 years.
For a while my family used Aetna as our health insurance. It was awful. I had to sic the NYS Insurance Department on it in order to get timely reimbursements. We switched to Empire BC/BS which is expensive but at least covers important stuff completely.
That being said, Mr. Thompson was a human being & a father of 2 children. Those expressing glee at his violent death are vile, disgusting & sub-human.
In the US, we resolve disputes by arrests, protests, legislation and lawsuits, not by violence - or at least we should. Even if Brian Thompson was a bad guy (and I'm not saying he was), there is no reason he should fear for his life in a civilized country. Those cheering his death are doing so solely because he was white and rich.
I disagree, and I'm not cheering for his death. He has become a symbol of our rightly hated health care system, which denies care to suffering people and bankrupts others. Our elected representatives do nothing to reform this system because they are bought off. People feel helpless, which is why they cheer when someone like Thompson is killed.
Even so, your comments about the healthcare system, the physical and financial suffering (mental and emotional stress, as well) and the elected "representatives" who are beholden to donors and fail/refuse to address the problem are valid.
I don’t hate the system. My premiums are reasonable for my HDHP and I have a triple tax free HSA. I’ll take this flawed system over government run healthcare any day. We don’t kill people to make examples out of them in the US. There is ZERO justification for his murder.
InterestinglyUnited Health insurance is ranked better by Medicare with consumer service than many other companies that health insurance. In my state of WA, insurance companies are not allowed to question the amount of money the hospital nor the doctor charges; they can question only the need for the procedure. Result: My spine surgery and 5 day hospital stay at USCF (San Francisco) ran up to abut $480 K of which only $18K was paid to the surgeon & his assistants for 5 hour surgery and all followup. I has signed up and paid for a top tier policies and my insurance at the time paid every one of my claims quickly. But the hospital charges were appalling given the level of service. They overcharged the hell out of my private insurance company. But my limit was capped at $10K. Insurance paid the rest. As a self employed individual at the time, I did pay a huge monthly premium in part because the private individual insurance pool ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, sn my state subsidizesd the uninusured. The large corporate elite and government agency people aren't necessarily tapped to help pay for the uninsured or the medicaid folks. The clmpds with the clout get the best insurance rates. Individuals working in small business or self employed pay thru the nose. Folks who work for big box corporate stores get crappy insurance; rates are somewhat low, but the basic policies require huge copays and offer crappy coverage; in short a lot is not covered. But much of this is determined by the states' policies toward insurance. So I blame obama care and state insuracne commissioners even more than the insuracne companies.
Obamacare is only the latest attack on our healthcare/health insurance systems.
Medicare & Medicaid were the opening assault. Hospitals submit ridiculously high charges to private insurance companies knowing that they will only get a small percentage back. They pad the bills of those with private insurance to make up for the low reimbursements from Medicare & Medicaid. Obamacare was Barack Obama's attempt to destroy private health insurance & force the country into a single payer system. He has partially succeeded - the system is now in meltdown. I will never forgive John Roberts for not killing this monster of legislation in its cradle.
I've had the feeling that that doctors and hospitals charge really high fees while knowing only a fraction of their charge will actually be paid. I remember having a hernia surgery in 2011 and the amount charged was around $18,000. When I got my statement of benefits, I noticed that what they actually paid was $1,400.
Apparently, UnitedHealthcare covered virtually all his medical expenses after Medicare paid its share - for 15 years.
Now on Medicare, I have this supplement too and it does provide gap coverage — but it at very low rates. So low my PCP who has an independent practice doesn’t accept UHC.
As my spouse maintains, there is gamesmanship in the insurance racket in which institutions overcharge knowing that reimbursement rates are low.
If it makes you feel any better (so you know you're not alone) the "great" Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital in NYC notified my husband (a prostate cancer survivor) that they will no longer be accepting our insurance - a Medicare Advantage Plan through Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (now known as Anthem). Hospitals are a racket, too.
Although I’ve learned a lot about the insurance industry since this murder, I still don’t understand how anyone could be cheering this act. Have we really become that callous?
And it seems no one really cares why this murder occurred. Was it a hit? Suicide by hitman? Disgruntled patient, family member, friend of a patient ? Was it arranged by some people who did not want him to testify in the DOJ insider trading probe that apparently has revealed a long list of high profile names, including Nancy Pelosi, who benefited from this insider information…or many other scenarios.
EVERYone knows if Penny had been BLACK this article was never written. It is just that SIMPLE. IF you are that person who chooses to BUY into this Marxist propaganda it's on YOU! Nov 5th happened for a reason, and this is one of those REASONS
I've lost context on the point you were making on my original post so want to make sure I respond in context. What is the point you are making in this again?
Also what happened to the two other men (one was black, I think the other was also a man of color) who assisted Penny? Not a word about them and what they had to say. Were they charged for anything?
Maybe we should get certain ingredients out of our food, including artificial dyes, seed oils, preservatives, insecticide, herbicides, pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, etc .. so we have a healthier population to begin with. MAHA.
Totally agree. How about getting healthy so that the only time you ever need your health insurance is for catastrophic events? Our healthcare for acute injuries is top notch. Our chronic care model is horrible. I don’t use it. Fortunately I have the knowledge and the means to go to integrative/functional medicine healthcare providers who practice root cause medicine not a pill for your ill, poly pharmacy without ever addressing why you may have Type 2 diabetes for example, and helping you to get healthy and off your medication. What a concept!
I get CEO’s are typically overpaid but what if there was no insurance for medical expenses? Obviously these morons want the Government to cover all their expenses but we need to realize how lucky we are when insurance is available for expenses like health costs.
They always think the Canadian, British, whatever healthcare systems are better but have they done any diligence? No. Long waits for procedures and encouraging people who are “burdensome” to do self euthanasia.
An older couple we worked with retired and moved to Ireland in the early 2000's. They were in their early 70's at the time. The wife got sick and was suspected to have cancer, and needed some kind of advanced tests and an MRI. She got an appointment for the MRI but the waiting list was 7 months later. By that time it was too late for her. Not a good system.
We were in England 1996-1999. First year: daughter needed a tonsillectomy. Government wait was 6 months! Private care was possible, but not covered by our US Insurance. We flew back to the US and had them out in a couple of days. Second year, son got a a cut, went to the ER waited 3 hours, no stitches left after 3 hours. Third year, wife got an infection on jaw, told community DR she needed an anti-biotic, he didn't give it to her. Three days later in the hospital to get an abscess and lump surgically removed. It was a great tour for me, not so much for the family.
I'd like to go back to the days when we only needed insurance for accidents and surgeries we paid cash for MD visits, and the few scripts we used may be covered by a rider, or cash. It really wasn't that long ago
Actually, it all started to shift after Medicare & Medicaid came on the scene (1965). Originally, with Medicare, doctors recognized it almost immediately as a cash cow (they were reimbursed whatever they charged by the government). It took about 10 years, but the government caught on & introduced diagnosis and procedure codes and accompanying reimbursement rates. Then, hospitals caught on: low reimbursement rates from Medicare & Medicaid led to higher costs for private insurance holders.
What a mess - all because government stuck its nose where it didn't belong!
Medical billing is a real joke. A doctor or hospital bills $1,000; you pay a co-pay, the insurer pays $175, and the rest is written off. In Illinois, if you sue someone for an injury, you can recover the full amount billed even if the amount actually paid is a small fraction of that. We need honesty and transparency in billing.
These journalists are ghoulish bloodsuckers who relish, exploit and live off the pain of others. Gollum incarnate. She comes alive at senseless violence. A horror whore. Gotta wonder how she’d feel to see her name on the headline on magazines in every grocery store across the country …”do bloodsucking journalists deserve to be murdered?”
The prosecutor at the bizarre trial of Jordan Neely is another creepy circus sideshow. Even Jerry Springer would have handled that frightening scene & unintentional tragedy with greater sensitivity.
There are a lot of things wrong with this society and the health insurance system is one of them but it is a systemic problem and can't be put at the feet of some person or other. I used to tell the people I worked with at an HMO who complained about the bosses that the bosses were constrained by the system and were not the problem.
Totally agree with this statement. It’s a systemic issue and the insurance companies are caught in the middle. I’m not condoning them, but I’m saying it’s more complex. Maybe that’s too hard for most people to understand.
Contrary to the video, United Healthcare is not a monopoly. It may well be too large and too powerful, but there are competitors. United Healthcare got to be as large as it is because many consumers (employers and individuals) chose to purchase their insurance plans.
Perhaps a better description would be that United Health Care is fully self contained -- so much so that it *appears* to have to negotiate for things, when actually they are simply negotiating with themselves.
No doubt Tolentino will get nods of approval at her next cocktail party or white fragility get together and for the record if the “subway dancer” had been a mime, his death would be completely justified. 🤷♂️
If the author of the New Yorker article one day happens to be confronted and accosted by an NYC crazy, I hope that right nearby there is a former Marine just standing there, watching and laughing. Unfortunately, that Marine is probably too upright an individual to fail to intervene. I, on the other hand, who have assisted NYC subway riders having difficulties, would not.
My dad, who retired from his job installing medical gas piping (for hospitals, surgery centers, etc) was a juror for a case in NJ about police racism in the year 2021. The black reporter at the Philadelphia Inqurier quoted him saying he doesn't think America is an inherently racist country. She attributed this quote to him, "an unemployed white man."
Not retired, but "unemployed." These journos always find a way to smear those they disagree with.
The people that pass for journalists today see the entire world in an oppressor/victim and black/white reductionist narrative dynamic. No room for facts that don’t fit or other interpretations. We must stop paying for this morally bankrupt garbage and they need to go find honest work.
They're narcissistic aristocrat's at court inside the palace gates.
Their primary tactic is to divide people into increasingly smaller groups of victims and oppressors, turn us against one another and, when we call them out on it they resort to projection and blame us for their own actions!
But don't worry. The gigs up.
We're kicking them out...to the curb. It's over and not a minute too soon. Expect the cacophony of tantrums to dial up to 11.
IGNORE THEM....unless you're going to mock them.
If you mock them, mock them until they cry...and then mock them for crying.
Let them melt down in their own pooh. They deserve it!
Sadly, not everyone ignores them. Communists, socialists, progressives, whatever they call themselves, will never quit trying to ascend to power by any and all means. Always expose them, mock them, make fun of them. Their tactics and goals remain the same: a totalitarian society dedicated to the destruction of wealth, culture, law, and civilization.
I think the shift is happening. Slowly but surely it's happening. The fact that people like Alex have a platform and can reach millions in a sense shows that the old narrative is slowly but surely crumbling.
my favorite was when they said it was fine to violate covid lockdowns to riot for george floyd en masse, but if your neighbor has a bbq with more than the immediate family you should snitch on them.
Don't forget the millions of immigrants who were allowed to stream across the border without covid vaccinations while American citizens were fired from their jobs for refusing them.
Strange how Taylor Lorentz never complains about this despite organizing a "Covid safe book launch".
https://dailycaller.com/2024/12/03/taylor-lorenz-raw-dog-air-covid-mask-book-launch/
Thanks for the link. It's my laugh for the day. Liberalism has been called a mental illness for years. Covid proved beyond all doubt that it is. Don't feel sorry for Taylor using her "own money" to covid proof her book launch. She comes from a wealthy family in Old Greenwich CT.
Kurt, I wholeheartedly agree with your excellent comment, but I would change the third sentence to read as follows: “We must stop viewing these morally bankrupt ‘journalists’ as fellow human beings.”
They are the ones calling us everything from deplorables to garbage. Our strength is accepting them and tolerating that they have batshit crazy ideas. They went nuts as a group but regain sanity one at a time. We have open arms to welcome them, when they awaken, become unwoke and join us. They already are. The pace will pick up. And they are never going back.
Having a ready-made framework for understanding any conflict - approved by the remaining readers - makes identifying a relatable angle easy. This is important when you aren't a particularly clever writer. New Yorker needs a billionaire angel like The Atlantic. It was once a great read. Now it's dull and predictable as is the present day Atlantic.
Tolentino would be the first one on a subway train with a deranged rider to cower in a corner and pray that someone like Penny would appear. She is a coward hiding behind the safety of her desk.
Thats because she thinks we're undifferentiated masses of meat.
Worry not, as Elon says:
We are the media now.
The broken MSM no longer controls the narrative. Alternative information sources are ascending; no amount of pompous punditry is going to convince an irate public that their lived experience is a figment of their imagination. Journalisim has slipped its leash and is running amok.
They just don't quite get the power of "distributed swarm networks" that can blow their narrative up within minutes.
They're about to.
Despite the screaming that they are afraid of Trump and MAGA, the truth is they have always been terrified of each other. They know what their fellow cult members are capable of. Ms Tolentino and her ilk are not sure of the correct swarm answer any more; thus the question mark in the headline and the tentative tone of her article. They are on a tightrope, terrified of falling into the abyss they created.
Yes. Well said
👍
Your comment made me think of a line from Julius Caesar:
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the JOURNALISTS of war!
That is sweet. Seriously
Just like the "Defund the Police" supporters, she is the first one who would scream for help when faced with a dangerous, mentally ill person.
I know that this is almost beside the point, but here goes: After my uncle retired, like many people who belong to AARP, he chose UnitedHealthcare as his secondary insurance to supplement Medicare. My uncle had the worst form of Crohn's disease & heart problems, to boot. When he passed away in 2016 I went through all his papers, which included explanation of benefits notices.
Apparently, UnitedHealthcare covered virtually all his medical expenses after Medicare paid its share - for 15 years.
For a while my family used Aetna as our health insurance. It was awful. I had to sic the NYS Insurance Department on it in order to get timely reimbursements. We switched to Empire BC/BS which is expensive but at least covers important stuff completely.
That being said, Mr. Thompson was a human being & a father of 2 children. Those expressing glee at his violent death are vile, disgusting & sub-human.
In the US, we resolve disputes by arrests, protests, legislation and lawsuits, not by violence - or at least we should. Even if Brian Thompson was a bad guy (and I'm not saying he was), there is no reason he should fear for his life in a civilized country. Those cheering his death are doing so solely because he was white and rich.
I disagree, and I'm not cheering for his death. He has become a symbol of our rightly hated health care system, which denies care to suffering people and bankrupts others. Our elected representatives do nothing to reform this system because they are bought off. People feel helpless, which is why they cheer when someone like Thompson is killed.
Cheering at Thompson's death is sick. Period.
Even so, your comments about the healthcare system, the physical and financial suffering (mental and emotional stress, as well) and the elected "representatives" who are beholden to donors and fail/refuse to address the problem are valid.
I don’t hate the system. My premiums are reasonable for my HDHP and I have a triple tax free HSA. I’ll take this flawed system over government run healthcare any day. We don’t kill people to make examples out of them in the US. There is ZERO justification for his murder.
InterestinglyUnited Health insurance is ranked better by Medicare with consumer service than many other companies that health insurance. In my state of WA, insurance companies are not allowed to question the amount of money the hospital nor the doctor charges; they can question only the need for the procedure. Result: My spine surgery and 5 day hospital stay at USCF (San Francisco) ran up to abut $480 K of which only $18K was paid to the surgeon & his assistants for 5 hour surgery and all followup. I has signed up and paid for a top tier policies and my insurance at the time paid every one of my claims quickly. But the hospital charges were appalling given the level of service. They overcharged the hell out of my private insurance company. But my limit was capped at $10K. Insurance paid the rest. As a self employed individual at the time, I did pay a huge monthly premium in part because the private individual insurance pool ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, sn my state subsidizesd the uninusured. The large corporate elite and government agency people aren't necessarily tapped to help pay for the uninsured or the medicaid folks. The clmpds with the clout get the best insurance rates. Individuals working in small business or self employed pay thru the nose. Folks who work for big box corporate stores get crappy insurance; rates are somewhat low, but the basic policies require huge copays and offer crappy coverage; in short a lot is not covered. But much of this is determined by the states' policies toward insurance. So I blame obama care and state insuracne commissioners even more than the insuracne companies.
Obamacare is only the latest attack on our healthcare/health insurance systems.
Medicare & Medicaid were the opening assault. Hospitals submit ridiculously high charges to private insurance companies knowing that they will only get a small percentage back. They pad the bills of those with private insurance to make up for the low reimbursements from Medicare & Medicaid. Obamacare was Barack Obama's attempt to destroy private health insurance & force the country into a single payer system. He has partially succeeded - the system is now in meltdown. I will never forgive John Roberts for not killing this monster of legislation in its cradle.
I've had the feeling that that doctors and hospitals charge really high fees while knowing only a fraction of their charge will actually be paid. I remember having a hernia surgery in 2011 and the amount charged was around $18,000. When I got my statement of benefits, I noticed that what they actually paid was $1,400.
Apparently, UnitedHealthcare covered virtually all his medical expenses after Medicare paid its share - for 15 years.
Now on Medicare, I have this supplement too and it does provide gap coverage — but it at very low rates. So low my PCP who has an independent practice doesn’t accept UHC.
As my spouse maintains, there is gamesmanship in the insurance racket in which institutions overcharge knowing that reimbursement rates are low.
If it makes you feel any better (so you know you're not alone) the "great" Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital in NYC notified my husband (a prostate cancer survivor) that they will no longer be accepting our insurance - a Medicare Advantage Plan through Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (now known as Anthem). Hospitals are a racket, too.
Although I’ve learned a lot about the insurance industry since this murder, I still don’t understand how anyone could be cheering this act. Have we really become that callous?
Yes they have. They’re monsters. Worse than the people they demonize
And it seems no one really cares why this murder occurred. Was it a hit? Suicide by hitman? Disgruntled patient, family member, friend of a patient ? Was it arranged by some people who did not want him to testify in the DOJ insider trading probe that apparently has revealed a long list of high profile names, including Nancy Pelosi, who benefited from this insider information…or many other scenarios.
EVERYone knows if Penny had been BLACK this article was never written. It is just that SIMPLE. IF you are that person who chooses to BUY into this Marxist propaganda it's on YOU! Nov 5th happened for a reason, and this is one of those REASONS
Exactly
Psst, it happened back in March:
https://nypost.com/2024/03/15/us-news/adams-severe-mental-health-problems-to-blame-for-brooklyn-subway-shooting/
Inferring this is similar in some way to how RACE is being cornerstone to Penny case?
I’d say so.
In reading the entire piece you sent I don't SEE the similarity in the least to Penny case.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/01/devictor-ouedraogo-harassed-j-train-riders-before-stabbing-wild-video/
How bouts this one?
I've lost context on the point you were making on my original post so want to make sure I respond in context. What is the point you are making in this again?
I'd guess the fact that the 32 year old was not charged is his basis for the claim that "it happened back in March."
Also what happened to the two other men (one was black, I think the other was also a man of color) who assisted Penny? Not a word about them and what they had to say. Were they charged for anything?
Shitbag leftists were lauding big corporate CEO’s when they were bowing to Biden and mandating the Covid shots.
Maybe we should get certain ingredients out of our food, including artificial dyes, seed oils, preservatives, insecticide, herbicides, pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, etc .. so we have a healthier population to begin with. MAHA.
Totally agree. How about getting healthy so that the only time you ever need your health insurance is for catastrophic events? Our healthcare for acute injuries is top notch. Our chronic care model is horrible. I don’t use it. Fortunately I have the knowledge and the means to go to integrative/functional medicine healthcare providers who practice root cause medicine not a pill for your ill, poly pharmacy without ever addressing why you may have Type 2 diabetes for example, and helping you to get healthy and off your medication. What a concept!
I get CEO’s are typically overpaid but what if there was no insurance for medical expenses? Obviously these morons want the Government to cover all their expenses but we need to realize how lucky we are when insurance is available for expenses like health costs.
They always think the Canadian, British, whatever healthcare systems are better but have they done any diligence? No. Long waits for procedures and encouraging people who are “burdensome” to do self euthanasia.
Those who can afford it do not use these government run healthcare systems, they come to the US.
An older couple we worked with retired and moved to Ireland in the early 2000's. They were in their early 70's at the time. The wife got sick and was suspected to have cancer, and needed some kind of advanced tests and an MRI. She got an appointment for the MRI but the waiting list was 7 months later. By that time it was too late for her. Not a good system.
We were in England 1996-1999. First year: daughter needed a tonsillectomy. Government wait was 6 months! Private care was possible, but not covered by our US Insurance. We flew back to the US and had them out in a couple of days. Second year, son got a a cut, went to the ER waited 3 hours, no stitches left after 3 hours. Third year, wife got an infection on jaw, told community DR she needed an anti-biotic, he didn't give it to her. Three days later in the hospital to get an abscess and lump surgically removed. It was a great tour for me, not so much for the family.
I'd like to go back to the days when we only needed insurance for accidents and surgeries we paid cash for MD visits, and the few scripts we used may be covered by a rider, or cash. It really wasn't that long ago
Actually, it all started to shift after Medicare & Medicaid came on the scene (1965). Originally, with Medicare, doctors recognized it almost immediately as a cash cow (they were reimbursed whatever they charged by the government). It took about 10 years, but the government caught on & introduced diagnosis and procedure codes and accompanying reimbursement rates. Then, hospitals caught on: low reimbursement rates from Medicare & Medicaid led to higher costs for private insurance holders.
What a mess - all because government stuck its nose where it didn't belong!
Medical billing is a real joke. A doctor or hospital bills $1,000; you pay a co-pay, the insurer pays $175, and the rest is written off. In Illinois, if you sue someone for an injury, you can recover the full amount billed even if the amount actually paid is a small fraction of that. We need honesty and transparency in billing.
No kidding.
These journalists are ghoulish bloodsuckers who relish, exploit and live off the pain of others. Gollum incarnate. She comes alive at senseless violence. A horror whore. Gotta wonder how she’d feel to see her name on the headline on magazines in every grocery store across the country …”do bloodsucking journalists deserve to be murdered?”
The prosecutor at the bizarre trial of Jordan Neely is another creepy circus sideshow. Even Jerry Springer would have handled that frightening scene & unintentional tragedy with greater sensitivity.
There are a lot of things wrong with this society and the health insurance system is one of them but it is a systemic problem and can't be put at the feet of some person or other. I used to tell the people I worked with at an HMO who complained about the bosses that the bosses were constrained by the system and were not the problem.
Totally agree with this statement. It’s a systemic issue and the insurance companies are caught in the middle. I’m not condoning them, but I’m saying it’s more complex. Maybe that’s too hard for most people to understand.
5-min video on United Health Care.
https://www.insurancewatchdogcoalition.com/?utm_term=C5VB
This is not too hard for me to understand.
And "systems" don't just happen. They are like buildings. They are planned, drafted, built, and that plan is then executed.
And insurance companies are NOT caught in the middle, they are the architects of the system. They ARE the system.
Contrary to the video, United Healthcare is not a monopoly. It may well be too large and too powerful, but there are competitors. United Healthcare got to be as large as it is because many consumers (employers and individuals) chose to purchase their insurance plans.
Perhaps a better description would be that United Health Care is fully self contained -- so much so that it *appears* to have to negotiate for things, when actually they are simply negotiating with themselves.
That's called a sham -- any way you look at it.
So happy to support great journalism, Alex. Keep exposing the lying “lamestream.”
Yes, thanks Alex!
It’s the taking a truth and twisting it until it becomes something else that really gets me.
No doubt Tolentino will get nods of approval at her next cocktail party or white fragility get together and for the record if the “subway dancer” had been a mime, his death would be completely justified. 🤷♂️
🎭 What did Marcel Marceau ever do to you, Scotty?
If the author of the New Yorker article one day happens to be confronted and accosted by an NYC crazy, I hope that right nearby there is a former Marine just standing there, watching and laughing. Unfortunately, that Marine is probably too upright an individual to fail to intervene. I, on the other hand, who have assisted NYC subway riders having difficulties, would not.
Madness!!!! Thank you for this brilliant piece. Paid subscriber now.
My dad, who retired from his job installing medical gas piping (for hospitals, surgery centers, etc) was a juror for a case in NJ about police racism in the year 2021. The black reporter at the Philadelphia Inqurier quoted him saying he doesn't think America is an inherently racist country. She attributed this quote to him, "an unemployed white man."
Not retired, but "unemployed." These journos always find a way to smear those they disagree with.