I honestly hadn’t thought about it this way, but what you’re saying makes absolute sense. It’s fascinating to see something that rings true and that never occurred to me until I read your piece. We all have choices about how we earn our living, and maybe it’s time for people to be more thoughtful about those choices.
It might be good for you to know that the decision about anesthesia which was reversed would not have cost customers anything, would not have resulted in anesthesia being cut off during a procedure, and was in fact only going to cost anesthesiologists by limiting their ability to overcharge for their services.
You know, otherwise known as “fraud?” By some of the most highly paid healthcare specialists?
They were trying to engage in collective bargaining - just like single-payer government insurance would do! - in order to try to put a damper on excessive healthcare costs caused by wealthy providers intentionally gaming the system for personal profit.
You know, kind of like THE EXACT FUCKING THING PEOPLE CHEERING THE MURDER ARE ASKING FOR??”
In other words, you’re completely full of shit and all you’ve managed to do is create a result in direct opposition to what you claim to want by running cover for the healthcare providers who are a primary reason that everything is so damn expensive in the first place. Oh and cheer vigilante murder in the process. Way to go!!! Gold star!
By the literal exact same logic as everyone cheering this on, it should be fine to murder people like you in the streets, right? And remember you don’t get to claim ignorance. Oh your intentions were pure but you were just dumb? Too bad, doesn’t matter. You did a thing and now people will suffer as a result.
Maybe THAT’S the problem with being an ignorant fucktard who doesn’t believe reality can ever trump ideology, as long as their own pathetic need for validation is satisfied? Maybe that - and not some special love of this CEO or the company - is the reason why vigilante justice is frowned upon?
No, it couldn’t be that. It’s definitely whatever lets you personally gloat and feel the most self righteous.
Against my better judgement, I’ll try to frame my response here without the rudeness you showed me. I’m finding this right wing counter-narrative about providers being the True Villains deeply weird. There can’t be more than one bad guy?
Ultimately, if you think providers were just going to absorb the increased costs associated with insurers failing to cover anesthesia, and not pass that down to patients, I can’t really help you. The point is that by being positioned between greedy, unaccountable industries on all sides, Americans are vulnerable to financial ruin and/or substandard treatment every time we try to access care. Anthem/BCBS were not white knights in this, trying to heroically protect us from ravenous anesthesiologists. They’re out for themselves. Which, fair enough, it’s their job to be. But it would be awfully nice if the system were administered by somebody out for us.
Last thing: I’m not cheering on murder here. You can’t have a civil society in which it’s permissible to simply kill people you don’t like. But…we already kind of have that. Our society is already insanely violent, murders happen all the time, nobody gives a shit, and nobody boo hoos over insufficient outrage when normal people get snuffed. In this case, the victim was a highly unsympathetic member of the elite, the press was all over it, law enforcement pulled out their A-game - going well above and beyond the effort they’d show if you or I got shot - and folks at home are correctly concluding that the system cares lot less about them than the people vicitimizing them. Some are responding to that by celebrating. It’s not surprising, and it’s not a sign that they’re evil.
That’s a reasonable critique. I used to talk about healthcare policy ALL THE TIME when I was a Senate aide, but I was never allowed to write about it. Will rectify!
This talking point - providers are the real bad guys - has been getting a lot of traction since Thompson’s murder. And…yeah, they suck too! On a trip stateside a few years back, I developed a rash and went to get it checked out at a small town clinic. In and out in 30 minutes, no labs, no blood work, doc barely looked at me, just wrote a script for Prednisone: $750. Madness. Can’t blame that one on the insurance companies.
So yes, identifying price gouging at the provider level is totally appropriate. But we should stop short of whitewashing the insurance industry (not that that’s what you were doing). They are not innocent middlemen. They’re vampires. Just not the only vampires.
I honestly hadn’t thought about it this way, but what you’re saying makes absolute sense. It’s fascinating to see something that rings true and that never occurred to me until I read your piece. We all have choices about how we earn our living, and maybe it’s time for people to be more thoughtful about those choices.
Absolutely. Putting a tie on to go to work, and doing work that is technically legal does not make one a contributing member of society.
It might be good for you to know that the decision about anesthesia which was reversed would not have cost customers anything, would not have resulted in anesthesia being cut off during a procedure, and was in fact only going to cost anesthesiologists by limiting their ability to overcharge for their services.
You know, otherwise known as “fraud?” By some of the most highly paid healthcare specialists?
They were trying to engage in collective bargaining - just like single-payer government insurance would do! - in order to try to put a damper on excessive healthcare costs caused by wealthy providers intentionally gaming the system for personal profit.
You know, kind of like THE EXACT FUCKING THING PEOPLE CHEERING THE MURDER ARE ASKING FOR??”
In other words, you’re completely full of shit and all you’ve managed to do is create a result in direct opposition to what you claim to want by running cover for the healthcare providers who are a primary reason that everything is so damn expensive in the first place. Oh and cheer vigilante murder in the process. Way to go!!! Gold star!
By the literal exact same logic as everyone cheering this on, it should be fine to murder people like you in the streets, right? And remember you don’t get to claim ignorance. Oh your intentions were pure but you were just dumb? Too bad, doesn’t matter. You did a thing and now people will suffer as a result.
Maybe THAT’S the problem with being an ignorant fucktard who doesn’t believe reality can ever trump ideology, as long as their own pathetic need for validation is satisfied? Maybe that - and not some special love of this CEO or the company - is the reason why vigilante justice is frowned upon?
No, it couldn’t be that. It’s definitely whatever lets you personally gloat and feel the most self righteous.
Against my better judgement, I’ll try to frame my response here without the rudeness you showed me. I’m finding this right wing counter-narrative about providers being the True Villains deeply weird. There can’t be more than one bad guy?
Ultimately, if you think providers were just going to absorb the increased costs associated with insurers failing to cover anesthesia, and not pass that down to patients, I can’t really help you. The point is that by being positioned between greedy, unaccountable industries on all sides, Americans are vulnerable to financial ruin and/or substandard treatment every time we try to access care. Anthem/BCBS were not white knights in this, trying to heroically protect us from ravenous anesthesiologists. They’re out for themselves. Which, fair enough, it’s their job to be. But it would be awfully nice if the system were administered by somebody out for us.
Last thing: I’m not cheering on murder here. You can’t have a civil society in which it’s permissible to simply kill people you don’t like. But…we already kind of have that. Our society is already insanely violent, murders happen all the time, nobody gives a shit, and nobody boo hoos over insufficient outrage when normal people get snuffed. In this case, the victim was a highly unsympathetic member of the elite, the press was all over it, law enforcement pulled out their A-game - going well above and beyond the effort they’d show if you or I got shot - and folks at home are correctly concluding that the system cares lot less about them than the people vicitimizing them. Some are responding to that by celebrating. It’s not surprising, and it’s not a sign that they’re evil.
I'm late to this party, but I'm compelled to advise you, Ernest, that "you are a lousy person" is a terrible argument.
That’s a reasonable critique. I used to talk about healthcare policy ALL THE TIME when I was a Senate aide, but I was never allowed to write about it. Will rectify!
This talking point - providers are the real bad guys - has been getting a lot of traction since Thompson’s murder. And…yeah, they suck too! On a trip stateside a few years back, I developed a rash and went to get it checked out at a small town clinic. In and out in 30 minutes, no labs, no blood work, doc barely looked at me, just wrote a script for Prednisone: $750. Madness. Can’t blame that one on the insurance companies.
So yes, identifying price gouging at the provider level is totally appropriate. But we should stop short of whitewashing the insurance industry (not that that’s what you were doing). They are not innocent middlemen. They’re vampires. Just not the only vampires.