The suspected shooter of UnitedHealthcare's CEO stepped into the gaping void left by the absence of government regulation of industry and he did a bang-up job. Why not give him a shot at a new role?
You have elderly NYC retirees forwarding this masterpiece to friends and family. Believe me when I say that it’s well received.
I’m of the opinion that this problem has its genesis in the creation of the Medicare Advantage legislation. Since then, the healthcare conglomerates have been running a three legged race towards a monopolization of all healthcare.
As an aside, NYC retirees have been fighting their mayor and former union leaders, in an attempt to save their promised traditional Medicare. That promise is codified in NYC Administrative law 12-126. Something about working for lower municipal wages, as opposed to the higher wages earned in the private sector, in return for lower cost healthcare in one’s later years.
It’s too much to explain here. In a nutshell, retirees are no longer union members. Thus, NYC union leaders understand that they can’t negotiate retiree benefits through collective bargaining. They can only collectively bargain for wages, hours and work conditions of current active members.
The president of the teachers union, Michael Mulgrew, threw that aside and cut a deal with Mayor Deblasio to plunder the Stabilization Fund - a fund that paid for all NYC retiree Medicare benefits, in exchange for raises for active teachers. This violated current law, but they did so anyway. Why not? They probably thought, “What are these Geezers going to do?”
Adams ran on a campaign that promised to end this injustice. He stated that he wouldn’t put his grandmother in the new Aetna owned Medicare Advantage Plan. Once elected, he stated that this Advantage plan wasn’t so bad after all. Most retirees worried that someone in the Aetna plan would approach him with a deal that he couldn’t refuse. Something changed his mind, and greed is a powerful thing.
NYC retirees ran, and continue to run a grassroots effort to beat back this “auto enrollment” into the new Advantage plan. To clarify, If a retiree didn’t send back the city’s snail mailed MAPP “opt out letter”that they were to receive and return, the city would be automatically placing them in the new “Disadvantage Plan”.
The only reason that NYC retirees haven’t been placed in the plan is due to the efforts of donor contribution towards litigation and the resulting court injunctions. Mayor Adams lost in court 10 times so far. He has retirees in appeals court at the present time.
The lack of out of state networks in the new plan, along with notarized letters from medical providers who stated that they wouldn’t be able to continue treating their patient, because they wouldn’t be participating in the Aetna Advantage Plan network, were the evidence that swayed Judge Lyle Frank to halt the plan.
It’s not solely a NYC issue. This attack on the eldest and most vulnerable of our population is occurring across the country.
You may want to read some of what Arthur Goldstein writes about the issue on SubStax. He highlights the greed and omnipotence that dominates the healthcare industry as a whole.
“ I have a couple of sincere questions for Goldenberg, reporters at the New York Times, and all the other observers out there who are aghast at the vox populi. First, what the fuck did you expect? Second, and closely relatedly, why are you casting aspersions at the lionizers rather than pointing a finger at the depraved morality of the two groups of people who the public clearly loathes, very rightly, and which obviously explains why the shooter is viewed so favorably by contrast: top executives at health care giants and the country’s political leaders who’ve sat back for the past half-century or so and expressly allowed them to squeeze, cheat, rob, and kill Americans on a daily basis and not done a goddamn thing about it other than cash the latest campaign check from industry CEOs and ask them what else they can do to make sure they send more the next time
Ken, one would hope that the robber barons and corporate criminal elites would be chastened by Mr Thompson’s fate, but I fear they’ll just hire more security and build deeper luxury bunkers. My sympathies to the Thompson and Mangioni families .
Your comparison of our disastrous healthcare system, to the era of child labor practices, evoked the emotions that so many of us are experiencing within America’s all too transparent and tiered caste system — which have left many of us feeling like swagmen and healthcare plan gadabouts.
I love to get these messages, I hate typos and am OCD about catching them but without an editor and only 24 hours in a day I always miss some. Will fix!
So many things are falsely presented to us as exclusively "either/or" choices. In this case, although opinions will vary on the "relative guilt" of one side or the other, it IS possible to condemn Mangione's (alleged) act while still deploring the corporate behaviors that presumably motivated it.
A good example of this is what has been happening in Gaza over the last year. One can (although many might not) condemn both the Hamas actions of 10/7/23 AND what many see as the subsequent over-reaction of Israel.
Of course, as you say, when people feel they are driven to the wall and they are provided with no other recourse, they can sometimes move to extremes. As JFK said: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
Although it seems the outrageous "business practices" of these insurers will finally get some long overdue public attention, it's a shame that it takes an event like this to make it happen.
The Medicare Advantage lobby is the dominant force here. I’m not so optimistic about any future changes to the current dilemma that so many Americans are facing. That said, schadenfreude is real. The moral dilemma - that nags at the soul; right from wrong, empathy vs animus. Are there any real answers to these conflicting thoughts and emotions? We’re only human.
It may be a shame that it takes an event like this to draw attention to the issue, but I don’t think the pathos of the situation is centered on Mangione’s act. This sort of thing is common in history. This way of addressing unsolvable power imbalances is not as violent as the deadly effects of those power imbalances. It’s a shame that the power imbalances are allowed to persist. It’s a shame that UH’s activities were allowed to proceed. That’s where the shame lies. Those who allowed the company to deal death are partly to blame, and those in the company who decided to try to deal death, and did so for years, have the rest of the blame, except for a small portion which belongs to those who fret over direct action against the situation. Killers on that scale must be stopped. It is imperative.
Drones above DC are Anglo-Saxons -- preparations for attack on Iran.
FYI -- It was a false flag attack to pull US into a world war but -- the ship for some reason, despite all efforts (including 5 torpedoes) failed to sink - it floated for 17 hours so rescue ships had to finally come..
Excellent piece -- thank you. Last sentence is brilliant.
Genuinely appreciate and love the feedback, thank you!
Real manifesto:
https://open.substack.com/pub/kenklippenstein/p/luigis-manifesto?r=kimyf&utm_medium=ios
The truth.
Not sure how well received the story will be, but a truer story I've never written. Thanks.
You have elderly NYC retirees forwarding this masterpiece to friends and family. Believe me when I say that it’s well received.
I’m of the opinion that this problem has its genesis in the creation of the Medicare Advantage legislation. Since then, the healthcare conglomerates have been running a three legged race towards a monopolization of all healthcare.
As an aside, NYC retirees have been fighting their mayor and former union leaders, in an attempt to save their promised traditional Medicare. That promise is codified in NYC Administrative law 12-126. Something about working for lower municipal wages, as opposed to the higher wages earned in the private sector, in return for lower cost healthcare in one’s later years.
It’s too much to explain here. In a nutshell, retirees are no longer union members. Thus, NYC union leaders understand that they can’t negotiate retiree benefits through collective bargaining. They can only collectively bargain for wages, hours and work conditions of current active members.
The president of the teachers union, Michael Mulgrew, threw that aside and cut a deal with Mayor Deblasio to plunder the Stabilization Fund - a fund that paid for all NYC retiree Medicare benefits, in exchange for raises for active teachers. This violated current law, but they did so anyway. Why not? They probably thought, “What are these Geezers going to do?”
Adams ran on a campaign that promised to end this injustice. He stated that he wouldn’t put his grandmother in the new Aetna owned Medicare Advantage Plan. Once elected, he stated that this Advantage plan wasn’t so bad after all. Most retirees worried that someone in the Aetna plan would approach him with a deal that he couldn’t refuse. Something changed his mind, and greed is a powerful thing.
NYC retirees ran, and continue to run a grassroots effort to beat back this “auto enrollment” into the new Advantage plan. To clarify, If a retiree didn’t send back the city’s snail mailed MAPP “opt out letter”that they were to receive and return, the city would be automatically placing them in the new “Disadvantage Plan”.
The only reason that NYC retirees haven’t been placed in the plan is due to the efforts of donor contribution towards litigation and the resulting court injunctions. Mayor Adams lost in court 10 times so far. He has retirees in appeals court at the present time.
The lack of out of state networks in the new plan, along with notarized letters from medical providers who stated that they wouldn’t be able to continue treating their patient, because they wouldn’t be participating in the Aetna Advantage Plan network, were the evidence that swayed Judge Lyle Frank to halt the plan.
It’s not solely a NYC issue. This attack on the eldest and most vulnerable of our population is occurring across the country.
You may want to read some of what Arthur Goldstein writes about the issue on SubStax. He highlights the greed and omnipotence that dominates the healthcare industry as a whole.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Additional hearts added because love your message, thanks. and can you email me? may get back to this. ken.silverstein@gmail.com
Nominee for paragraph of the year:
“ I have a couple of sincere questions for Goldenberg, reporters at the New York Times, and all the other observers out there who are aghast at the vox populi. First, what the fuck did you expect? Second, and closely relatedly, why are you casting aspersions at the lionizers rather than pointing a finger at the depraved morality of the two groups of people who the public clearly loathes, very rightly, and which obviously explains why the shooter is viewed so favorably by contrast: top executives at health care giants and the country’s political leaders who’ve sat back for the past half-century or so and expressly allowed them to squeeze, cheat, rob, and kill Americans on a daily basis and not done a goddamn thing about it other than cash the latest campaign check from industry CEOs and ask them what else they can do to make sure they send more the next time
Ken, one would hope that the robber barons and corporate criminal elites would be chastened by Mr Thompson’s fate, but I fear they’ll just hire more security and build deeper luxury bunkers. My sympathies to the Thompson and Mangioni families .
Great piece of writing! You said it all so eloquently.
Your comparison of our disastrous healthcare system, to the era of child labor practices, evoked the emotions that so many of us are experiencing within America’s all too transparent and tiered caste system — which have left many of us feeling like swagmen and healthcare plan gadabouts.
Correction: "chalk on blackboard" is a pretty normal sound. Nails on a blackboard is the colloquialism, I think. :-)
Excellent catch, thank you will fix!
Here's one more: "Louisiana energy companies were able to get away to get away with their crimes..."
Also the following paragraph's first sentence has an extra space before the period thus pushing the period to the next line on its own.
Sorry if I'm nit picky, I write as part of my job as well and my boss is a real anal MF'er. :-)
I love to get these messages, I hate typos and am OCD about catching them but without an editor and only 24 hours in a day I always miss some. Will fix!
So many things are falsely presented to us as exclusively "either/or" choices. In this case, although opinions will vary on the "relative guilt" of one side or the other, it IS possible to condemn Mangione's (alleged) act while still deploring the corporate behaviors that presumably motivated it.
A good example of this is what has been happening in Gaza over the last year. One can (although many might not) condemn both the Hamas actions of 10/7/23 AND what many see as the subsequent over-reaction of Israel.
Of course, as you say, when people feel they are driven to the wall and they are provided with no other recourse, they can sometimes move to extremes. As JFK said: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
Although it seems the outrageous "business practices" of these insurers will finally get some long overdue public attention, it's a shame that it takes an event like this to make it happen.
The Medicare Advantage lobby is the dominant force here. I’m not so optimistic about any future changes to the current dilemma that so many Americans are facing. That said, schadenfreude is real. The moral dilemma - that nags at the soul; right from wrong, empathy vs animus. Are there any real answers to these conflicting thoughts and emotions? We’re only human.
It may be a shame that it takes an event like this to draw attention to the issue, but I don’t think the pathos of the situation is centered on Mangione’s act. This sort of thing is common in history. This way of addressing unsolvable power imbalances is not as violent as the deadly effects of those power imbalances. It’s a shame that the power imbalances are allowed to persist. It’s a shame that UH’s activities were allowed to proceed. That’s where the shame lies. Those who allowed the company to deal death are partly to blame, and those in the company who decided to try to deal death, and did so for years, have the rest of the blame, except for a small portion which belongs to those who fret over direct action against the situation. Killers on that scale must be stopped. It is imperative.
Well said! Thank you 😊
Drones above DC are Anglo-Saxons -- preparations for attack on Iran.
FYI -- It was a false flag attack to pull US into a world war but -- the ship for some reason, despite all efforts (including 5 torpedoes) failed to sink - it floated for 17 hours so rescue ships had to finally come..
https://rumble.com/v5ybmmb-a-personal-announcement.html