delay, deny, defend... ourselves from capitalism

Since I work in healthcare and have strong opinions on the economic structure of the US and much of the rest of the world, of course I have thoughts about the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO. I honestly don’t think anyone cares about them, but I need to get them out anyway. To start with, I have to include the disclaimer that everyone has to put out that I don’t condone assassinating people. I don’t want to promote or glorify violence as a solution as I think there are always better ways to deal with socio-economic issues. That said, I hope this incident makes people think more about the context of the world they live in and how it affects people.

In general, CEOs are people who run corporations, and these people often jump from company to company, often making millions of dollars whether that company does well or not, then jets off to a different company to do whatever it is they do for millions of dollars. As just one of many, many examples, the CEO of Spirit Airlines, Edward Christie, made $6.6 million last year and received a $3.8 million bonus right before the company went bankrupt. Brian Thompson, United Healthcare’s CEO was making $10-11 million a year in total compensation. No big deal, right? The problem is, many of the companies make their money by exploiting their workers and/or shorting the people they purportedly serve.

Healthcare companies essentially try to make profit from providing healthcare to people. The system makes people purchase insurance individually or through their employer, and then they pay out money to the people who happen to need it. Problem is, it’s hard to make lots of profit by doing this unless you limit what you spend. And they do this by denying care or claims, whether it’s procedures or medications or whatever. And the more they can skimp on reimbursing providers and denying people trying to access their own healthcare, the more money the company makes, the shareholders make, and the administrators make. The people actually providing the care don’t make a killing themselves. In fact, they’re often pushed by their employers to do more, faster, and charge for every little thing by their employers while the insurers are pushed to deny as much as possible and pay out as little as possible. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s the patients who generally suffer.

United Healthcare’s CEO was murdered, and many outlets are reporting that written on the bullets were words like ‘delay,’ ‘deny,’ defend,’ ‘depose.’ If true, they are likely referencing the way insurance companies “delay paying claims, deny valid claims in whole or part, and defend their actions by forcing claimants to enter litigation,” which according to the book Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, is the way these companies operate to maximize profit, the “Moses and the prophets” of capitalism as Marx would call this insatiable drive to accumulate. There are countless cases of United Healthcare alone delaying, denying, and defending their limitations of people’s arguably necessary healthcare, many anecdotal examples being shared on social media following the news of Thompson’s assassination. Untold numbers of people have been harmed by the reluctance of insurers to approve or pay for medical needs, and this anger and frustration is shown by the insanely disproportionate reactions on social media in the aftermath of the shooting. Last time I checked before going to sleep last night, there were 20,000+ laugh reactions to less than 2,000 sad reactions on United Healthcare’s Facebook post regarding Thompason’s death. And new articles and Twitter/X are no different.

The sad fact is that our healthcare system alone contributes to unimaginable suffering and death due to delays in care or outright refusals to approve the care needed because it basically costs the insurance companies too much. The purpose of healthcare isn’t the care itself–it’s the possibility of others to make as much fucking money as possible by providing it or denying it. And this simple fact, as much as people try to defend it as being ‘fiscally responsible’ and in line with the supposedly wholesome, benevolent, and enlightened aims of the capitalist market’s invisible hand, is absolute bullshit and an indictment of the very system they seek to defend, much the same as insurers try to defend their delays and denials. It’s a fucking con.

The economy itself – i.e., the way we organize production and distribution – is how we reproduce society; it forms the material foundation on top of which our political and legal superstructures are built. And under capitalism, that foundation is controlled via property rights and other coercive means by capital in conjunction with the state (forming the 'ruling class'), which in turn gives shape to the 'markets' in which the economy manifests itself. But the economy isn't some magical creation of capital or the state or some unseen, guiding hand of Providence beyond our keen; it's created by all the labour of working people–we, collectively, are the economy. And its manifestation isn't preordained, either. Rather, it takes its shape based on how economic life is organized.

I don’t rejoice in this one CEO’s death, even if I detest what he and his company ultimately stands for–making money at the expense of others who lack the power and resources to defend themselves and their health and that of their families. The way our economy is currently configured, CEOs and capitalists are the predators, and workers and consumers are the prey, and I’m sick and tired of it. And I think many others are just as sick and tired as me. My one and only hope is that we can find a way to communicate and come together to change things for the better in a collective and constructive way instead of the resolution coming from the end of guns held by angry and desperate people who have nowhere else to turn.