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I hope that was a mugger
United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was killed on Wednesday in New York City. Written on the shell casings left by his killer were the words “Deny,” “Defend,” and “Depose,” which suggests this was not a random killing. NYC police have been investigating the fact that UnitedHealthcare has been under attack recently from People’s Action Institute — a leftist organization with a leftist name whose website describes their goals thusly: “Advance a long-term agenda for racial, economic and gender justice by investing in powerful state and local organizations and campaigns that win real change in people’s lives.” Why can’t leftists just come out and say what they want? I can think of only one possible explanation, and it’s not good.
Anyway, People’s Action Institute released the following statement recently about Medicare patients getting denied coverage. They mentioned no specific cases, but said:
“Despite having health insurance coverage, people are experiencing barriers to receiving care. The largest barrier to receiving care is the private health insurance corporations themselves refusing to authorize or pay for care.”
These people have apparently never heard of Canadian or British healthcare systems. They have also never heard of Obamacare, apparently, in which millions of people have health insurance but can’t get health care. They’re shocked. SHOCKED!
Leftists demand that government pay for health care. So we get Medicare. Today, Medicare has a $1 trillion dollar budget, 75% of which is deficit spending. And even with that, Medicare can’t come close to meeting the health care needs of elderly Americans. So it allows them to buy secondary insurance, to help cover that which Medicare just can’t afford. And even with that, the private insurance companies can’t cover everything, either. We eventually run out of other people’s money. And guess who leftists get mad at? Private insurance companies.
That really is amazing. If Medicare worked, we wouldn’t need private insurance companies to be involved at all. Medicare begs them for help, and hands them a problem which they can’t solve. But leftists still love Medicare. Even though Medicare doesn’t work. Because it can’t work. Medicare borrows 3/4 of a TRILLION dollars a year, and it’s not enough. Perhaps Medicare doesn’t work? Because it can’t work?
And that’s the fault of private insurance companies.
Imagine private insurance companies seeing this and thinking, “This is not worth the trouble. We’re not going to do Medicare plans.” Imagine Medicare without secondary insurance. It doesn’t cover anything. The Canadian system sort of works because when Canadians get sick, they come to America.
Where would we send our sick people? Mexico?
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Government programs don’t work because they can’t work. If that inevitable outcome leads to violence from its proponents, then this becomes a Mobius Strip of resentment and destruction.
Was this killing in NYC the act of a left-wing organization that blames private companies for the problems that result from their own irrational faith in government?
I really hope not. Because if that’s true, then this is just the beginning.
Political violence nearly always comes from the left. Were the Black Lives Matter riots just a sample of things to come? Is American society actively tearing itself apart? Has our government and its supporters developed an open adversarial relationship with the American people?
Source: Shutterstock, 1794791080
I really hope not.
This could get ugly quickly.
I hope that was just a mugger on a NYC sidewalk.
Because if this was a politically targeted killing, planned by angry leftists, then this could get ugly really, really quickly.
Published in General
This is a sweeping statement and inaccurate. You’d have to run through the models employed in all the different countries to deliver care, the funding of the care, what levels and quality of care people receive, for this to even be considered.
But I’ll leave you with an anecdote: There’s a reason Canadians drive south to get medical care – they can’t wait for treatment for their life-threatening diseases because the queue runs from BC to PEI.
I love this. lol
The ACA is so worthless. Every single year 25% more go on Medicaid or something like that. Whatever the figure is, it’s huge. We are ruled by geniuses.
I spent two or three years, trying to see what the point of it was. All they are doing is forcing single payer.
Pharma says that statins are super cheap and effective. Those points are still contested today. And remember that when the med is prescribed the patient is told that the regimen works best if you make dietary changes and exercise more.
That Pharma had good intentions re: statins seemed a possibility back when statins were first released. But then a push occurred such that it was no longer people in the over 200 arena of cholesterol readings who were advised to get the meds. Soon the numbers were adjusted downward to focus even on people with readings of 160. Because after all, everything Pharma makes is harmless, and rare are the consumers who pay out of pocket, so it is just a nebulous invisible bill sent to health insurers and to MediCare/MediCaid.
Now due to this sleight of hand getting a green light, we face a future of an additional 3 trillion dollar a year cost to MediCare/MediCAid on account of Pharma’s desire for semi-universal Ozempic. Hopefully the public will unite and prevent this from happening.
No, they’re not.
For heavens sake.
And stop talking about cholesterol. Statins are heart drugs, not cholesterol drugs.
Statins have saved Medicare enormous amounts of money – strokes and heart attacks are expensive. And statins are cheap, safe, and effective.
For heavens sake.
20 mg bought my levels down. Changed to 10 mg and levels started creeping back up. Went back to 20 mg and levels stabilized again. I can’t see any bad side effects from the drug. Didn’t need them when I was younger. Levels crept up when I got older. Husband eats more than I do and only needs 10 mg.
I started taking them before Thanksgiving and all went almost OK for a week. But then they started making me feel extremely sleepy, and was sleeping almost half of each 24 hours. I also was feeling as though I was poisoned, not that I knew before what it felt like to be poisoned. It was getting worse every day, so I quit, and since then I’ve felt well again. My doctor is on vacation, so I hope that when she gets back we can figure out something to do. One interesting point is that I was worried that the statins would make me weak, so I used my indoor bicycle trainer to collect data on power output, etc. on various video routes that I didn’t mind repeating over and over again. That gave me a baseline before I started the statins. I kept doing those rides even when I was feeling poisoned, and although I felt sleepy and crappy at the start of each ride, the data don’t show any diminishment of what I could do while bicycling. My power output was just fine–well, fine for me but not anything to write home about–and my evening bicycle ride (usually an hour or an hour and a half long) was the one time of each day when I didn’t feel poisoned or at death’s door. The effect would last longer than the ride, but I can’t ride my bike for enough hours every day to maintain some semblance of life. So I’m not sure where this will go. Maybe I need to repeat the experiment, but I’m not inclined to do that before consulting with my doctor.
Why not? Australia and Western Europe are jonesing for Obamacare, amirite?
In the sense of the US paying for it, I’m sure they would love it.
If you have to create the “right” at gunpoint it’s not a right.
acTUaRIaL sCIenCE iS bOrInG
Mr. C has been on Lipitor for 20 years. The last time he had scans several years ago, they told him he had the heart of a 20 year old. I seem to remember reading there’s some research indicating statins may help prevent cancer, too. Do you have any knowledge about that, Doc?
I would say for Aristotle’s sake. Or Hippocrates if you so prefer.
Aristotle and Hippocrates are dead.
But they once lived. Also, they are alive in my heart.
It’s a right! Doncha know?