Is All Fair in Love and War? Notes on the UnitedHealth CEO Slaying

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
-H.L. Mencken

Upfront, let’s get the glaring caveat out of the way: none of what follows is in any way an endorsement of extrajudicial killings, both because publicly advocating explicit acts of violence is one of the rare exceptions to First Amendment speech protections and because, in a functional Hobbesian civilization, disputes such as the apparent one between UnitedHealth and the gunman are adjudicated in a court of law rather than in the streets like in Haiti or the Congo.

That said, I struggle to drum up sympathy for the slain CEO, and what follow are some of the many reasons why.

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Put simply, health insurance companies are economic leeches that contribute nothing of value to anyone except their shareholders and the executives like Brian Thompson, who was raking in tens of millions of dollars annually before his killing. They provide no service. They treat no patients. They improve no lives — quite the contrary, in fact.

Once this pure truth is crystallized and digested, no amount of industry propaganda — like we have below from United Health CEO Andrew Witty regarding their moral benevolence as they “guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care” on behalf of their beloved clients — can obfuscate that reality.

Via Quartz (emphasis added):

“UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty defended the company’s claim denial practices in a leaked video recorded after the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance subsidiary. The video has sparked another round of online backlash against the company regarding how it evaluates medical claims.

“We make sure that care is safe, appropriate, and is delivered when people need it and we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable*,” Witty told employees in a video leaked to journalist Ken Klippenstein.

The video was recorded just one day after Thompson was fatally shot in New York City on the morning of Dec.4…

UnitedHealthcare’s denial rate for post-acute care — health care needed to transition people out of hospitals and back into their homes — for people with Medicare Advantage plans rose to 22.7% in 2022, from 10.9% in 2020.”

(*“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered” is PR gobbledygook for “we reject medical claims as part of our business model.”)

That curious surge in denied claims in a mere two-year period, as described above, just happens to coincide with the implementation of AI by these same corporations programmed to deny claims at an industrialized, automated scale.

The dystopian rapefest that is the claims process no longer even has that quaint human touch. Instead, robots now inform the peasants that their life-saving surgery isn’t actually all that necessary after all.

Via Quartz (emphasis added):

“The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday has sparked public scrutiny of health insurers, especially regarding their use of AI in evaluating claims. The incident also comes as several insurance providers have been facing litigation over their coverage practices and the potential impact they have on patient care...

In October, a report from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showed that the nation’s insurers have been using AI-powered tools to deny some claims from Medicare Advantage plan subscribers.

The report found that UnitedHealthcare’s denial rate for post-acute care — health care needed to transition people out of hospitals and back into their homes — for people with Medicare Advantage plans rose to 22.7% in 2022, from 10.9% in 2020.

The rise coincides with UnitedHealthcare’s implementation of an AI model called nH Predict, originally developed by naviHealth, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that has since been rebranded.”

Anesthesia isn’t really all that important, either, according to the industry.

As recently as five days ago, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield had a scheme fully devised and ready to launch in February that would limit the amount of time a patient undergoing surgery would have their anesthesia covered under their health insurance policies.

Via CNN (emphasis added):

“After sharp criticism from anesthesiologists, an insurance company is halting its plan to limit the amount of time it would cover anesthesia used in surgeries and procedures. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said on Thursday it would no longer move forward with the policy change…

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance representing Connecticut, New York and Missouri had previously said that, starting in February, it would deny any claims for anesthesia services that exceeded specific time limits set for surgeries and procedures.

Anthem had said the change was part of an effort to make health care more affordable by reducing overbilling for anesthesia.

After raising alarm about the proposed plan, one major professional group of anesthesiologists said on Friday it was “pleased that Anthem has reversed course on its deeply flawed policy proposal to no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary, Anthem-set time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure actually takes.””

Not only does this abhorrent behavior occur in the beautiful chaos that is the free market; these corporations also have entire staffs devoted to weaponizing the state against the interests of their own clients — the literal definition of fascism.

Consider that Obamacare explicitly requires that all American citizens buy insurance from one of these companies whether they want it or need it or not — or else incur tax penalties.

Dylan Ratigan politely took notorious pharma whore Rep. Debbie to the proverbial woodshed on this very topic back in 2009 in a brutal shellacking for the ages.

Believe that we have only scratched the surface of the healthcare industry’s grotesque machinations, a full accounting of which could fill, and has filled, volumes.

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Amidst all of the popular and well-deserved hatred aimed at the industry, executives are reportedly more hesitant to take prominent positions in these companies for fear of the same fate befalling them that befell Brian Thompson — and, again, although I won’t condone gunning these cretins down in the street, perhaps a little fear is what the doctor ordered to make them act just a tad less like anti-human demons in thousand-dollar-suits.

Via Fortune (emphasis added):

“There’s a diminishing financial incentive for executives to become CEOs, especially as the role becomes all the more demanding. Couple that with constant scrutiny, isolation, public exposure of their personal lives, and the toll on loved ones, and it’s easier to see why many high-potential candidates are wary of stepping into the job.

The recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson could further intensify these concerns. Executive recruiters, board members, and current CEOs privately acknowledged to me that the incident might deter highly qualified candidates from aspiring to the CEO position, particularly at polarizing companies, like, say, X, or in polarizing industries like insurance or armament manufacturing.

Last week, a nonprofit CEO echoed this apprehension over drinks, sharing the story of a finance executive and friend who had repeatedly declined CEO offers. He valued his privacy and safety and already enjoyed a lucrative career without the added burdens of heightened visibility and constant security. “He could leave his house whenever he wanted without security guards always trailing behind,” she remarked.”

Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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