A few days ago, a man shot and killed the CEO of United Healthcare in what the news calls a “targeted assassination based on dissatisfaction with the US healthcare industry”. Since then, the online world has been filled with comments from people pointing out that this CEO and United Health’s policies have injured, bankrupted and caused the death of tens of thousands of people.
Many people are saying the shooter is a hero of sorts. Pundits and news people are saying that this is a “wake up call” to the insurance industry and politicians about US health insurance consumers dissatisfaction and frustration.
I doubt it.
I’m won’t detail my own thoughts and experiences regarding healthcare in the US today. I’ve written about this extensively before. You already know what I think.
One murder isn’t going to do shit.
Except – it will increase costs to consumers because executives in certain industries will insist on getting company paid security for themselves. That I’m confident will happen. The rich always take care of themselves.
Maybe if leaders in companies that screw their customers like health insurance, banking, airlines etc. started getting murdered regularly, they might make some changes to better serve their customers.
Then again, probably not.
More likely, they’ll try to build moats of protection to isolate themselves from the common people. Think private security, fenced communities, private jets, armored vehicles, police escorts, etc.
I can appreciate the sentiment and online pseudo “rising up” expressed by commenters (and by bots, no doubt). Many of us have dealt with the frustrations of being overcharged, underserved, bankrupted and at times, devastated by the US healthcare system as a whole. I feel their pain.
I just don’t think the wealthy executives ever do.
Don’t count on that changing.
Postscript- Given the shooter’s age and socio economic background I suspect we’ll eventually discover there’s some mental illness and inability to adapt to society in his history and that his motivation has less to do with politics/healthcare and more with his mental issues despite the media trying to portray him as a Robin Hood type figure. Of course, this is only my uninformed opinion.