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I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit. (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/longreads

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One story that we couldn’t keep out of the press and that contributed most to my decision to walk away from my career in 2008 involved Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old leukemia patient in California whose scheduled liver transplant was postponed at the last minute when Cigna told her surgeons it wouldn’t pay. Cigna’s medical director, 2,500 miles away from Ms. Sarkisyan, said she was too sick for the procedure. Her family stirred up so much media attention that Cigna relented, but it was too late. She died a few hours after Cigna’s change of heart.

Ms. Sarkisyan’s death affected me personally and deeply. As a father, I couldn’t imagine the depth of despair her parents were facing. I turned in my notice a few weeks later. I could not in good conscience continue being a spokesman for an industry that was making it increasingly difficult for Americans to get often lifesaving care.

One of my last acts before resigning was helping to plan a meeting for investors and Wall Street financial analysts — similar to the one that UnitedHealthcare canceled after Mr. Thompson’s horrific killing. These annual investor days, like the consumerism idea I helped spread, reveal an uncomfortable truth about our health insurance system: that shareholders, not patient outcomes, tend to drive decisions at for-profit health insurance companies.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 23 hours ago (33 children)

I mean, you are right, murder shouldn't be the way to change this. But one has to look at the whole thing and wonder, can it change through non-violent means at all? People have been long complaining about the system, there's groups advocating for universal/free healthcare for a long time. How much change did that bring? Maybe the murder will have similar small impact in the long run, we will have to see. But then actions will just get increasingly more extreme over time.

[+] UniversalMonk -14 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (32 children)

But one has to look at the whole thing and wonder, can it change through non-violent means at all?

Doesn't matter. I will never advocate murder. I don't care what the argument is. If you don't like a product, then don't use it. But don't fucking murder a person walking down the street because you are pissed at the company he works for.

Thank God that most of society doesn't think the way Lemmy does when it comes to this subject!

I had a shit insurance company. They never paid any of my claims. So you know what I did? I dropped them. I went uninsured because the insurance company wasn't doing shit. So I stopped giving them money.

And you know what? If everyone did that, then the health insurance company would go out of business. You don't HAVE to pay for health insurance if you feel it's denying every fucking claim. Because if they are denying every claim, then you don't really have health insurance. So you are no worse off for not having it.

The Democrats didn't do shit about it. The Republicans didn't do shit about it. But if we all stopped paying premiums, then guess what? People would wake up.

But you don't fucking murder people to make your point. I don't give a fuck what your point is.

Luigi committed murder. The jury won't let him off just because they don't like insurance companies. I hope he gets life in prison. Lemmy can feel free to write him all the fan letters they want, but doesn't change my mind about it.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 19 hours ago (10 children)

Thank you for stating that point. I really want to like lemmy as I deleted my reddit account and generally like the idea of a federated system a lot more. The people celebrating this murder as and act of heroism has disgusted me to the core. That it's so widely believed violence and self-justice will solve the root cause of this system when it will just affect a symptom but not solve anything in the long run.

From nearly all ethical standpoints this murder was unethical and unjust. I wish I could just turn this discussion off on lemmy since its strong bias of this echo chamber is strongly noticeable. I too hope and think the jury will find a decision that is just.

The only way where I see violence justified is in authoritarian dictatorships, where the public has no sovereignty and the dictator acts willingly harmful to their populace in either exploiting them, attacking them and killing them. Other than that probably in self-defence and situation of war. But this is a completely different scenario. Killing a CEO since you don't like their company.

Whats next? Killing somebody because you don't like their face? But I guess we agree on that notion.

[–] UniversalMonk -5 points 13 hours ago

The people celebrating this murder as and act of heroism has disgusted me to the core.

Thank you for being brave enough to agree with me! As forward-thinking as the idea of Lemmy and the Fediverse is, I was super disappointed at how much people here are celebrating cold-blooded murder. Luigi is no hero. He legit walked up behind a guy and murdered him. Totally cowardly way too. Shot him in the back!

I'll stay on Lemmy for now, because I know that most people here have no emotional maturity. I feel that most will look back on this like older people look back on their early cringy, edgy Myspace emo phase.

Thank goodness that most of society does NOT agree with Lemmy on this. All of their talk about "Jury will never find the guy guilty!!" is BS. The jury will find him guilty. Rightfully so.

The guy is a terrorist. And Lemmy admin should realize that many, and I mean MANY posts to Lemmy lately could def raise FBI alarms.

I see people on here saying stuff like, "Don't talk about your plans here, it's too public. DM me for the next target..."

Lemmy thinks they are planning some sort of revolution. It's not a revolution. It's edgy hippy vegans talking about murdering rich people.

And admins are gonna find out real quick that hey are letting shit get out of hand.

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