CEO of United Healthcare murdered in NYC. Officials wonder at the motive

Good day all. I’ve been sitting back on this one since so much isn’t know. The short version is that a man in a hoodie and a mask walked up behind Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare and shot him twice. Thompson died at the hospital and the suspect has, for now, made a clean getaway.

The police have been able to track down pictures of the suspect without his mask and are trying to locate him. They believe that he has successfully left the city. Now what is known is that he used what looks like a Glock with a suppressor on it. However, his gun malfunctioned and he had to manually cycle it after every shot. (Colion Noir did a YouTube video where he thinks the shooter didn’t use a booster on the suppressor indicating he didn’t test fire before the crime)

The reactions on the Internet, while decrying the crime, have not been very sympathetic to Brian Thompson. I won’t bother going into what people are saying, you can find it for yourself. However, it does appear that Thompson may have been under investigation for insider trading. The conspiracy theorists have been having a field day with that, saying that he was murdered by a pro. (The weapons malfunction shows the criminal wasn’t)

The police also found that the spent casings were marked with the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend”. This makes me think that this was a highly targeted crime and that the criminal may have either lost someone due to a claim being denied, or may be very ill himself and decided that he had nothing to lose. Now news has come out that a lawsuit against United Healthcare was filed indicting that UHC has been denying most of the claims made and that people have died as a result. Here are the details from Yahoo News:

Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.

Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors. The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.

If this is accurate, then some serious sanctions need to be made regarding UHC, up to and including criminal charges against the C-level management that made the decision to use this program. From what I’ve been reading, UHC has a history of denying legitimate claims and is, apparently, one of the worst insurance companies when it comes to this happening.

As that lawsuit made its way through the courts, anger regarding the massive insurer’s predilection towards denying claims has only grown, and speculation about the assassin’s motives suggests that he may have been among those upset with UHC’s coverage.

When I learned of the shooting and who was killed, I suspected that, as I said above, the shooter may have suffered some sort of injury due to UHC’s actions. It would explain a lot, such as the shooter laying in wait for some time before Thompson came out of the hotel he was in. It would also explain why the Police haven’t found him yet. It looks like he had a plan and is following it.

Though we don’t yet know the identity of the person who shot Thompson nor his reasoning, reports claim that he wrote the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on the shell casing of the bullets used to shoot the CEO — a message that makes it sound a lot like the killer was aggrieved against the insurance industry’s aggressive denials of coverage to sick patients.

Again, I have the suspicion that this wasn’t just some spur of the moment deal for the criminal. Other then the issue with the weapons malfunction, he seems to have covered all his bases. I also suspect he doesn’t care if he gets caught. That makes me wonder if he isn’t terminally ill himself and isn’t worried about standing trial. The police do have his picture now and potentially some DNA. I expect they will figure out who he is in the next few days, and then we may have an idea of his motive.

Beyond the shooter’s own motives, it’s clear from the shockingly celebratory reaction online to Thompson’s murder that anger about the American insurance and healthcare system has reached the point of literal bloodlust.

It is bad. So bad in fact that the other insurance companies have scrubbed their web sites of their CEO pictures and identities. (Not that this will do any good. The information is publicly available and a determined individual or group will track the CEO’s down if they wanted to)

As The American Prospect so aptly put it, “only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO.”

And the alarming cruelty of the claims around the company’s AI algorithm — we asked the company whether it’s still using it, but received no immediate reply — perfectly illustrates why they’re so angry.

Apparently, all the insurance companies are now using some form of AI instead of using actual people. The problem with this is that these programs are only as good as their programmers and the datasets used. We’ve seen just how “Good” these AI’s are on sites like Faceplant, Googlag and Youtube where they have been found to actively censor conservative opinions. Since no humans are involved in these decisions, there generally isn’t any real recourse outside of courtrooms.

There is a second story below the one referenced here on Yahoo News with horror stories from people who have been ruined by the health insurance industry. I’m not going to go into them, you can read them yourselves. You can see how these companies may have pushed the shooter over the edge.

Now there are those, almost exclusively on the left who, besides chortling over this murder, are saying that this is proof we should have government run socialist style medical care. For those who think that Socialist Healthcare is so great, you might want to look at what those who have suffered under it think. They hate it.

Now, does there need to be a review on health insurance? Oh Hell yes! Obamacare really did a number on people. It should be abolished. We also need to look into things like medicare and medicaid and how badly they distort the insurance markets. We may also want to get all these insurance companies into a room and flat out order them to come up with a standard billing system or the government will do it for them. (Something I personally am loathe to see happen)

Now on to a few other things regarding the crime in question. As of now, the police have not identified the shooter. They have a picture they are claiming is him. The FBI is involved, (Almost insuring his successful getaway), and a reward for his arrest has been issued. ($60K as of this post) Some are saying he’s probably killed himself. I somehow doubt that. I think he has a plan to escape and is following it.

As the days pass, and he isn’t found, the odds of him being captured drop. He may not even be in the country any longer. Then there is the question of what will happen if they do find him? Will he go down fighting? Kill himself or surrender? Personally, I want to see him in a courtroom.

If he claims the shooting as a justified homicide, such as personal defense or the defense of others, it’s going to open one big can of worms. Look for the prosecution to try and shut that defense down and block it from the Jury. If the defense does get that in, then it ends up putting United Healthcare on trial. Who knows how a jury will vote? As of now, we are in a wait and see mode.

Thatisall

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