Bullet casings found following health care CEO murder: "The words 'delay,' 'deny' and possibly 'depose' appeared on shell casings and bullets recovered from the scene of the [United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson] shooting in New York City, according to New York City Police Department officials," per CBS News. "Law enforcement officials said they are examining whether the words relate to a possible motive involving insurance companies and their responses to claims."
I covered the murder of Thompson in yesterday's Roundup. It's a tragic story, and the killer has not been apprehended yet, so we still do not know very much about his motives; whether it was murder for hire (as some people have suggested); or whether a spurned patient was in some way connected. Internet discourse is going absolutely wild, with people venting rage for health insurance companies, frequently betraying how little they actually know about how the system works.
Smarter takes below:
You can see this in the UHC exec shooting. "Health insurance executives who deny claims should be shot" is a common point of view. "Doctors who refuse to perform a procedure for free should be shot" and "hospital administrators who expect bills to be paid should be shot" are not https://t.co/pWN4Nu0PjN
— bob's burgers urbanist ????️ (@yhdistyminen) December 5, 2024
Insurance corps being seen as the bad guys in US healthcare is a tremendous psyop by hospitals. When one gets an absurd bill from the hospital, the immediate reaction is to blame the insurance co. for objecting to it, not the hospital for giving you an absurd bill. Amazing.
— Christian Britschgi (@christianbrits) December 5, 2024
There's an interesting magical thinking belief that keeps emerging that greedy C-suiters at these health insurers merely want to line their pockets with wads of cash while denying needed services to their customers. There's another bit of magical thinking that insurers can simply put no parameters on services, issuing no guidelines and making no calls about health care system overuse. Some people appear to believe that the hospitals who ratchet up the medical bills in the first place—knowing that insurers will pay massive chunks of it—are blameless. Still others believe that single-payer health care would solve this whole thing, and there would be high-quality care and no long wait times for services rendered—something not seen in, for example, our neighbor to the north, which has a single-payer health care system. ("The entirety of Canada has fewer MRI machines than… Pittsburgh," wrote journalist Mark Hemingway on X.)
Since we are talking about healthcare today, it's worth noting that the single payer systems in Canada and the UK are wildly worse than most Americans realize.
These are wait times in weeks (!!!) to see doctors in Canada. pic.twitter.com/kpMk4uCE6d
— Wally Nowinski (@Nowooski) December 5, 2024
The cost of "free" healthcare in Canada. Hundreds of people line up to get a family doctor like it's the new iPhone. Wait times of 5-6 hours. pic.twitter.com/pawFswRmxe
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) August 18, 2024
It's like half the internet must greet health care CEO assassination as a good and noble thing, and half the internet must spend time carefully sifting through the root causes that result in people being dissatisfied by the existing system, and never the two shall meet.
David Sacks, AI/crypto czar: One of the "besties" from the All-In podcast has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve in the administration as an artificial intelligence and crypto czar—positions that have not existed until now, but signal Trump's intent to pay attention to both industries.
Regardless of your thoughts on the cringiness of 50-year-old men calling each other "besties," or Sacks in general, this is probably a good pick. Sacks "will focus on making America the clear global leader" in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, per Trump's Truth Social post announcing the pick. Sacks will "safeguard Free Speech online" and "work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for." In that position, it is probably far better to have venture capitalists/former PayPal mafia-ers/actual tech insiders than those with outright hostility to Silicon Valley.
"The appointment won't require Sacks to divest or publicly disclose his assets. Like [Elon] Musk, Sacks will be a special government employee. He can serve a maximum of 130 days per year, with or without compensation," notes Bloomberg. "However, conflict of interest rules apply to special government employees, meaning Sacks will have to recuse himself from matters that could impact his holdings."
Scenes from New York:
"The father of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who died on a New York City subway car last year after another passenger put him in a chokehold, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Daniel Penny, the man who choked his son," reports The New York Times. "The suit comes as a jury in Manhattan is deliberating in Mr. Penny's criminal trial to determine whether he is culpable in Mr. Neely's death."
The suit filed by Andre Zachery seeks unspecified damages for the physical assault and battery of Zachery's son, Neely. Zachery and Neely had been estranged for years, and Neely had moved in and out of shelters, not staying with family. Neely had entered the foster care system at 14, following the murder of his mother at the hands of an abusive boyfriend. It's odd, to put it lightly, that Zachery was seemingly unable to provide support to his son at critical junctures while he was still alive, but that he's interested in a payout now that he's been killed.
As for the criminal trial, Penny has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, facing either acquittal or up to 15 years in prison. "Penny's lawyers have argued in court that it is impossible to know how much pressure he exerted when he put Mr. Neely in a chokehold, and that it was in fact Mr. Neely's schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana use and sickle cell trait that led to his death," notes the Times.
QUICK HITS
- Is Javier Milei a madman or a savior? Reason's Zach Weissmueller traveled to Argentina to investigate. I must say: I am obviously a Weissmueller partisan, but this documentary is truly a can't-miss.
- "Glamour offers a promise of escape and transformation," writes former Reason Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel in Works in Progress. "It focuses deep, often unarticulated longings on an image or idea that makes them feel attainable. Both the longings—for wealth, happiness, security, comfort, recognition, adventure, love, tranquility, freedom, or respect—and the objects that represent them vary from person to person, culture to culture, era to era. In the twentieth-century, 'the future' was a glamorous concept."
- Absolutely fascinating thread:
On TikTok there is AdjusterTok, where work from home insurance agents video their side of calls explaining how car insurance works to irritated people, and it's quite sobering stuff. People don't really know what insurance is, it's just some magical thing to make stuff better.
— SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) July 17, 2024
- Elon Musk is now America's biggest political donor, reports Bloomberg.
- Appreciate ANY and ALL anti-Bluesky content:
"I'm leaving twitter, this place is too toxic and crazy"
*signs up for Assassination Circle Jerk dot com*
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 5, 2024
- Saving my plea for the very end. Would you mind supporting our journalism? If you like Roundup in particular, please mention that in the comment of your donation. We're almost in the home stretch, and these annoying pleas will cease soon (but my gratitude won't!).
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