Thinking They Know Better

Since my last blog post that highlighted the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the suspected killer has been captured and identified as 26 year-old Luigi Mangione.

Mangione holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

News reports indicate that he was motivated to allegedly kill Thompson over contempt for corporate America and frustration with the American health care system.

Mangione had several handwritten pages on him that expressed a "disdain for corporate America" and indicated "he's frustrated with the health care system in the United States," NYPD Chief of Detective Joe Kenny told ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

Mangione appears to have become radicalized after dealing with a painful back issue that led to what looks to have been a spinal fusion operation.

Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-freak-accident-turned-luigi-mangione-into-vengeful-murder-suspect/

It is not clear why he took out his frustrations on UHC because the x-ray indicates that he had back surgery.

Did UHC deny the procedure and Mangione had to cover it himself?

Did Mangione have to go through too many hoops to get the surgery covered?

Is Mangione unhappy with the surgery's result and decided it is UHC's fault for approving it?

Was it something else involving a family member?

It would not be out of the ordinary for an insurance company to question the necessity of a back surgery on an otherwise healthy 25 or 26 year old.

Back surgeries are notoriously risky procedures. The intervention often does more harm than good.

The general rule I have always heard is that resorting to back surgery should be the absolute last resort for anyone dealing with back pain.

I heard an orthopedic surgeon comment that back surgeries end up helping the patient 1/3 of the time, makes no difference in 1/3 of cases and actually worsens the situation 1/3 of the time. Those are not great odds, especially for a young man.

We will hopefully get more answers about Mangione's motives in due course.

However, what is known is that Mangione was an intelligent young man from a family of money and privilege.

His family had extensive real estate interests and owned a senior living care company

He was valedictorian at a $40,000 per year private school in Baltimore.

He has two Ivy League degrees.

How could a young man with such promise go off the rails and be accused of taking the life of an innocent man on a New York City street over health insurance?

Of course, what is really revolting about all of this are the many who are making Mangione to be some sort of folk hero.

Threats have come in against the McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, PA where Mangione was captured after an employee called police about the suspicious man that looked like the NYC person of interest.

Threats have also been made against the arresting officers.

You also have former Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz stating that she felt "joy" on hearing about the murder of Brian Thompson.

Link: https://x.com/ianmSC/status/1866296282215842158

Lorenz goes on to claim that "tens of thousands of Americans" are being killed each year by greedy healthcare executives denying care. Therefore, it can considered that the murder of Thompson was a form of justice according to Lorenz.

What???

Does she have any idea what she is saying?

Feeling "joy" or "justice" about the murder of an innocent man?

Claiming tens of thousands are dying each year due to denial of care by health insurance companies?

Yes, there are denials from time to time. There has to be a gatekeeper or arbiter of some type of health providers or they would have free rein to do and charge almost anything they wanted to.

However, where are the "tens of thousands of deaths"?

Could there be a few legitimate cases? Yes, that undoubtedly could be true.  But tens of thousands?

Further, is Ms. Lornenz aware that 75% of the 3.1 million deaths in the United States in 2023 were of people over the age of 65 all of which are covered under Medicare?

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7331a1.htm

Is she going to start blaming the U.S. government next for denial of care here as well?

Of course, you also have politicians like Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) come out of the woodwork after this tragedy and start arguing that we need "Medicare for All".

Rep. Khanna believes that he knows what the country needs but he does not know the difference between REVENUES and PROFITS?

The seven largest private health insurers had $1.4 trillion in REVENUES last year, not profits.

PROFITS of the industry were $ 71 billion.

For the record. Khanna corrected his tweet after being called out for his total lack of economic or healthcare literacy.

However, those $71 billion in profits represent only about 1.5% of the $4.5 trillion that was spent on health care in the United States in 2023.

Keep in mind that this is a guy who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, went to Yale Law School and thinks he knows better than anyone about what "we" need. 

While politicians like Khanna are so concerned about profits by private health insurance companies, they don't show the same level of concern that Medicare and Medicaid are reported to lose well over $100 billon to fraud each year. A number well in excess of any "profits" by private health insurers.

Taxpayers are losing more than $100 billion a year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud, according to estimates from the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association.

“That’s probably a conservative number,” Pérez Aybar said. “When we think about all lines of business in Medicare and Medicaid, that’s probably a drop in the bucket.”

A big reason for this is the incentives are simply not aligned properly with a government program that is attempting to manage trillions of dollars in payments.

A trio of elites from academia. big media and politics who think they know better than anyone else but clearly don't have the slightest clue about what they are saying or doing.

Luigi Mangione.

Taylor Lorenz.

Ro Khanna.

Is it any wonder that the majority of Americans spoke up in November and signaled they have had enough of being told about what they need and what to believe from the so-called "elite" class.