UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassinated In NYC

Noodles

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Meanwhile, I'm wondering how using artificial intelligence to automate (false) medical care denials isn't considered terrorism.

That's what that CEO did when he was still alive, and he was there to brag about how much money he made from it.
Because it's Capitalism.

If you don't like it, you can just leverage the free market and start your own insurance company that does not do that. If that is what the people actually want, they will flock to you!

That's the beauty of unfettered capitalism and the free market!

Oh God, I think I made myself throw up a little from posting that, also /s.
 

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Meanwhile, I'm wondering how using artificial intelligence to automate (false) medical care denials isn't considered terrorism.

That's what that CEO did when he was still alive, and he was there to brag about how much money he made from it.
I don't know about calling it terrorism, since it was done out of pure greed, not toward any political or ideological aim. But make no mistake, it was the epitome of evil.
 
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I don't know about calling it terrorism, since it was done out of pure greed, not toward any political or ideological aim. But make no mistake, it was the epitome of evil.
So does that mean Satan is not a terrorist, just a guy with a really bad temper?
 

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Nietzsche pronounced God dead, and I don't really see any evidence to the contrary. So you'd think Satan would finally step in and take the reigns, as they say.
 

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Because it's Capitalism.

If you don't like it, you can just leverage the free market and start your own insurance company that does not do that. If that is what the people actually want, they will flock to you!

That's the beauty of unfettered capitalism and the free market!

Oh God, I think I made myself throw up a little from posting that, also /s.
I prefer calling it "economic feudalism" nowadays.
 

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Nietzsche pronounced God dead, and I don't really see any evidence to the contrary. So you'd think Satan would finally step in and take the reigns, as they say.
Nice pun. :)
 
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GoblinCampFollower

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Because it's Capitalism.

If you don't like it, you can just leverage the free market and start your own insurance company that does not do that. If that is what the people actually want, they will flock to you!

That's the beauty of unfettered capitalism and the free market!

Oh God, I think I made myself throw up a little from posting that, also /s.
Of course.... applying the logic of free markets health insurance is self defeating more so than most industries. Because nothing is more useless than an insurance company that doesn't pay claims. I've said many times before that insurance companies MUST be compelled by government to pay claims. You'd never survive as the only honest insurance company that pays out.

Also... Though I agreed earlier that the "official" definition of terrorism includes Luigi's actions, I really don't agree with that definition personally. The original intended use of "terrorism" is to terrorize a people. If that is the intent, then it's terrorism. I don't think it makes much sense to think political motivations are the same thing as terrorism. I don't see Luigi as a terrorist for this reason, though I am still NOT saying a targeted assassination was necessarily the right thing to do.
 

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So does that mean Satan is not a terrorist, just a guy with a really bad temper?
Satan is just a dude with a day job who runs The Bag Place. Its not like he is out there making people do evil like Supply Side Jesus™.
 
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Innula Zenovka

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Of course.... applying the logic of free markets health insurance is self defeating more so than most industries. Because nothing is more useless than an insurance company that doesn't pay claims. I've said many times before that insurance companies MUST be compelled by government to pay claims. You'd never survive as the only honest insurance company that pays out.

Also... Though I agreed earlier that the "official" definition of terrorism includes Luigi's actions, I really don't agree with that definition personally. The original intended use of "terrorism" is to terrorize a people. If that is the intent, then it's terrorism. I don't think it makes much sense to think political motivations are the same thing as terrorism. I don't see Luigi as a terrorist for this reason, though I am still NOT saying a targeted assassination was necessarily the right thing to do.
I wonder, too, about how applicable the definition of terrorism in 18 USC Ch. 113B: TERRORISM is in this particular case:

(5) the term "domestic terrorism" means activities that—

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended—

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and


(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States; and
It depends on how you construe the words "to intimidate or coerce a civilian population."

It's difficult to see how murdering senior executives of health insurance companies could be said to be intended to intimidate or coerce anyone other than that minute section of the civilian population who are themselves senior executives or major shareholders in such companies, so I can see how there's an arguable case either way.

In English law, references to "the general public" can be construed as meaning "a particular section of the general public" (e.g. statutory provisions referring to the threat an offender presents to the general public apply to serious sexual offenders who exclusively target teenage girls, even though they're no particular threat to anyone else), but I don't know how it works in the US or how small a group has to be before this kind of provision cases to apply.

Doubtless it will eventually find its way to the Supreme Court.
 
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GoblinCampFollower

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I wonder, too, about how applicable the definition of terrorism in 18 USC Ch. 113B: TERRORISM is in this particular case:



It depends on how you construe the words "to intimidate or coerce a civilian population."

It's difficult to see how murdering senior executives of health insurance companies could be said to be intended to intimidate or coerce anyone other than that minute section of the civilian population who are themselves senior executives or major shareholders in such companies, so I can see how there's an arguable case either way.

In English law, references to "the general public" can be construed as meaning "a particular section of the general public" (e.g. statutory provisions referring to the threat an offender presents to the general public apply to serious sexual offenders who exclusively target teenage girls, even though they're no particular threat to anyone else), but I don't know how it works in the US or how small a group has to be before this kind of provision cases to apply.

Doubtless it will eventually find its way to the Supreme Court.
I can definitely see how this is a hard thing to define in a rigorous, written way. I also really don't like the idea of wealthy, powerful people defining themselves as a protected class; though I know some would like to...
 

Innula Zenovka

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I can definitely see how this is a hard thing to define in a rigorous, written way. I also really don't like the idea of wealthy, powerful people defining themselves as a protected class; though I know some would like to...
I don't think that a lot depends on what the courts make of his motives. I'd argue there's a difference between murdering the CEO of an insurance company because he's mad with insurance companies and wants to express his rage and murdering the CEO as part of a planned campaign to intimidate the industry as a whole to change its treatment of policy holders.

I would imagine, as I said, that one way or another it'll end up in the Supreme Court, depending on how the two sides put their cases and what the evidence is.
 

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Oh mai...

UnitedHealth Stock Crashes On Medicare Advantage Billing Probe
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is under investigation by the Justice Department for its Medicare Advantage billing practices, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The civil fraud probe is looking at whether diagnoses were routinely made to trigger extra payments. UNH stock crashed to a 10-month low in early stock market action.

Stocks of other Medicare Advantage players including Humana (HUM) and CVS Health (CVS) are also down on the news.
 

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Whatever this shooter's beef with the company, it's clear they were reckless and didn't give a crap about stray bullets hitting others.
Later this year, after the economy has crashed and large numbers of people find themselves impoverished without a whisper of government assistance, these kinds of indiscriminate incidents will increase exponentially.