The cold-blooded murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has sparked an ugly reaction.
Liberal politicians and commentators used Thompson's murder as an excuse to complain about insurance companies. But their anger should be directed at the federal government, Seamus Bruner said in the latest episode. Drill down.
One example of the ugly reaction came from progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). declared“The visceral reaction of people across the country who feel deceived, defrauded and threatened by the dastardly conduct of their insurance companies should serve as a warning to everyone working in the health care system.”
Mr. Bruner, author of this book control gulch The vice president for research at the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) told host Eric Eggers that he thought such comments were “despicable.”
Bruner says the real reason health insurance and medical costs are so high in the United States is because of the government. Requiring people to buy something raises the price of that thing, he tells Eggers.
Mr. Thompson's cold-blooded murder in front of a New York hotel shocked the American public. Investigators identified the suspected killer several days before customers and employees at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized the stranger and called local police.
The suspect, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Baltimore family, drew a strange fascination from some online: an obsession with good looks for a man accused of a cold-blooded crime. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel gleefully shared comments on his show from staffers who thought the alleged killer was “charming.”
“These are strange, wild times we live in,” host Eric Eggers agrees.
But even such a strange reaction is misdirected.
“Luigi might have become the story,” Eggers said. “But the real story is your costs and taxes.”
Bruner said the federal government has distorted the market through Obamacare, causing health care costs to rise and health insurance companies to reduce coverage.
And politicians like Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) should understand that. That's because they were part of the Congress that passed the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” in 2009. Although this law was supposed to lower the cost of health insurance by requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance, it worsened the problem in many ways.
Various efforts to reform Obamacare have been unsuccessful. Eggers points out that Obamacare changed the economics of health insurance, making everything more expensive. “A lot of people are making a lot of money by exploiting problems.”
Bruner agrees. His research led him to conclude that the federal government is essentially in business partnership with medical companies, particularly the pharmaceutical industry. And he points out that more than half of annual spending on health care, $218 billion, comes from the federal government. That means Americans are not only paying more for insurance, but paying for it a second time through their taxes.
However, the organizers are not friends with the insurance industry. Eggers points out that UnitedHealthcare suffered from the following situations: lawsuit Last year, it was accused of using an artificial intelligence model that was found to have a 90% error rate in the process of prematurely removing elderly patients from care homes.
Among health insurance companies, UHC has the highest claim denial rate in the country at 33%. However, health insurance companies have enjoyed significant increases in stock prices. From 2019 to 2023, the S&P stock index rose 250%, while healthcare company stocks rose nearly four times that percentage.
President-elect Donald Trump was asked: meet the press This week, he talked about what he plans to do about health care costs and why he didn't try to repeal Obamacare during his first term. President Trump said, “I had to make a decision: Do I make one? [Obamacare] Make it as good as possible or let it rot. ”
Only time will tell whether the new administration will seek to reform the economic realities of health care in the United States, but in the meantime, let's take a look at Mr. Thompson's alleged killer, 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione. Some people have turned him into a sex symbol.
“Luigi might have become the story,” Eggers said. “But the real story is your costs and taxes.”
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