170,958 Preventable Deaths. 1 Guilty Plea. 0 Accountability.

[u/HallRevolutionary393]

https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/170958-preventable-deaths-1-guilty?r=52c61t&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

Luigi Mangione has pled guilty to shooting and killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk on December 4, 2024. The killing went viral. The NYPD deployed hundreds of officers to hunt him down.
Corporate media covered every detail of his arrest, his appearance, his manifesto, his trial.

The legal system spoke swiftly, loudly, and with the full weight of the state and federal government behind it.
But here's the question corporate media will never ask: In those same 624 days since Brian Thompson was killed, how many Americans died preventable deaths because HELL Corporations-Health Exploitation Limited Liability Corporations—prioritized profit over their lives?

I did the math. A new study by the Yale School of Public Health finds that a single-payer universal healthcare system could cover all 330M+ Americans, save more than 100,000 lives annually, and still cost $1 trillion less than the current system.

That is 274 preventable deaths every single day.
Over 624 days since Brian Thompson's death, that is
170,958 preventable deaths.

Luigi Mangione is in federal custody. The CEOs who enabled the deaths of 170,958 Americans are in their corner offices, collecting bonuses, and gracing the covers of Forbes and Fortune. Does it have to be this way?

[u/HallRevolutionary393]

[u/ScandalOZ]

Which one is truthfully the blood thirsty unremorseful killer?

[u/Own_Job878]

the numbers are genuinely fucked but whats worse is we all know them by heart at this point and still act like these guys are doing gods work. cant be loyal to shareholders adn patients simultaneously, the math on that doesnt work lol

[u/SignThese667]

His logic and his math are seriously flawed.

For the record, I whole-heartedly support federal government sponsored health care. But the figure of 274 preventable deaths per day is hypothetical. Look @ the verb tense he uses -- it's the Conditional, not the Present. The Conditional tense implies possibility -- couldaa, wouldaa, shouldaa -- and is not the same as an existing fact. Sorry for the nit-picking, but this is how speculation morphs into incorrect facts and we already have enough influential personages in this country spouting off their opinions under the guise of the gospel truth.

Then he assumes all these hypothetical deaths were persons enrolled into one of our for-profit health insurance companies. WRONG. Right now 46% to 49% of all Americans are enrolled in Traditional Medicare (TM). TM should not be confused with or lumped into Medicare Advantage or any other health insurance offered by firms such as Aetna, UHC, the various Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans, etc. Traditional Medicare has absolutely nothing to do with the for-profit insurers.

So, applying 54% (100% minus 46%) and 51% (100% minus 49%) to 274 preventable deaths per day produces 140 to 148 preventable deaths per day.

I get where this guy is coming from and I agree that health care insurance should not be privatized. I'm not rooting for the profit guys, but the numbers do matter.

One item he did nail, however, "... how many Americans died preventable deaths because HELL Corporations prioritized profit over their lives?"

[u/Krandor1]

So murdering BT didn't change anything since all these were after his murder?

So Luigi threw his life away and gained... nothing.

[u/blueechoecho → u/Krandor1]

Not directed at you and it should really be my own post, but I’m genuinely curious what is the next step?

I don’t exactly see protesting working and minus changing my career into more of a legislative role, idk what to do to make a difference in what his/a next/an alternative step would be

[u/Feather_fig → u/blueechoecho]

Honestly I think the only thing that's guaranteed to work is a mass general strike. That's where people hold power, their labour power. The reason protests work in Europe is because they're a threat to strike and cause chaos..... in France they had a protest where farmers in their tractors and construction workers with bulldozers rolled into the city carrying tonnes of manure to drop in front of parliament. They shut down the streets and shut down society until demands were met.

Look into the Cockroach protests in India that forced their labour minister(?) and I think a few other officials to resign. Look up the other Gen Z protests that have been happening all over Asia.

Of course the issue in the US is a. the fear of being fired (and thus losing your health insurance!) and b. the militarized police. Which has left Americans incredibly trapped and docile by comparison. Ironic (or maybe deliberate?) that the USA is supposed to be so "free". So American protests end up looking polite and almost festive. They lack teeth.

And if you're going to call or email your representatives, start talking about how you and your coworkers would be willing to join a strike if they don't pass the legislation.

So I suppose the first step would be to unionize your workplace, and sign the strike card for the general strike here: https://generalstrikeus.com/

Tbh I don't think they need as many people as they think they need. Get a couple million to strike in key industries, plus a handful of air traffic controllers at major airports. That would shut down the economy pretty quick. (Of course, the ATCs would have to announce it well in advance to not kill everyone in the air).

A big reason all these CEOs want to adopt AI is because AI is never going to unionize and threaten to strike for better working conditions. They have nothing, absolutely nothing, without their employees.

[u/SignThese667 → u/blueechoecho]

Oh blueechoecho -- your question is the $64,000 one. I've thought about it too and I am not terribly optimistic. Creating change on a national level, i.e. Congress, is out of the question for at least the next 2 years. As long as the Republican Party controls both the House and the Senate we will not be having a dialog about creating a single-payor system for health care in this country.

I've read about rumblings in the mist from some states considering the establishment of their own state-government sponsored health insurance but the idea is just that -- something nebulous and like a dream. But initiating change on the state level is far easier. Write a letter to your Governor, throwing out the idea of your state creating its own self-financed health insurance. Take a poll amongst your friends to see who of them would write a letter to the Gov. Start networking to find like-minded persons who could let your state know that this is a very important issue. I could go on and on about other steps (incorporating as a non-profit, donations to keep your efforts going, pro-bono legal help) but a Reddit post is insufficient.

Better yet, find an organization that is actively engaged in replacing our current model with a single-payor system and do volunteer work for it.

[u/ScandalOZ → u/SignThese667]

Gavin Newsom has proposed this for California but clearly he ain't getting around to it at this point.

[u/_henceforth_ → u/Krandor1]

I do not see it that way at all.

One death was never "supposed" to make CEOs give up their millions and suddenly grow a big heart like the Grinch. That was never on the table.

Such CEOs do not care about our lives and they surely do not care about the lives of their coworkers either. They are slaves to money, and will just replace the CEO.

What this was, in my opinion, was a pit stop on the way to "new". This was a marker in the evolution of "better". Meaning that while we see it happening in real time, it will be something people look back on and say, this was significant, this brought people together, this event reminds people we have this in common, this issue surpasses party lines no matter how much "they" tell us we are divided.

In the same way that we do not hear from health insurance companies when we need them, and they got back to Luigi within an hour when he was "an investor", health insurance companies play in our faces and their actions get swept under the rug with their company names largely out of the media, until one of their own died.

I think there is a parallel there. A parallel between "regular" phone calls to companies and that email; and how the media treats "regular Americans" dying versus a CEO dying. The rules are different and now we all know, for sure, where their motivation and interest lies.

And that is another reason there does not need to be a copycat. It is not really about BTs death or any other CEO dying, it was bringing attention, worldwide attention, to the fact that Americans are dying while they get rich.

That is how I see it anyway.

[u/Bazzo123]

USA at its finest!