The Evils of Cartel Unidas
“What’s the difference between United Healthcare and the drug cartels?”
“At least the drug cartels provide health insurance”
Just like a drug cartel, the head of one of our cartels was gunned down last week.
Reminder: Their gross revenue for 2023 alone, ONE year, was over $370 billion dollars. You don’t have that much revenue by paying claims.
I know there are some people horrified by the violence, and I get that perspective. We don’t want this to free fall into a society of vigilantism.
We feel sorry for this man, and his family.
However, where are the national stories feeling sorry for the thousands of people killed every year by claim denials? And many more thousands of bankruptcies, divorces, suicides, etc.
There are many sketchy details to this story, that I’m not ready to decide on yet. If the shooter ends up dead, it will just add to the skepticism that this is about disgruntled patients.
The most important fact in this case is that the CEO was testifying in an insider trading investigation. Who are the best insider traders? Politicians.
Hedging your bets
When I owned my own clinic, Cartel Unidas used to send me checks for 1 cent. I’m not shitting you, and I wish I had kept those. I threw them away in disgust. It was more insulting to send me 1 cent than nothing at all.
At one point I bought stock in Cartel Unidas to hedge against my loses. But I felt so awful and morally bankrupt that I got rid of it. That’s also naive. At that time, Cartel Unidas was trading at $50/share. SInce the Unaffordable Care Act, is has ballooned to $600/share.
Depravity
Here’s another disturbing clue that something else is going on. Shares of UHC went up after the CEO was killed. Related to the investigation?
All of it is disgusting. But so is letting hundreds of thousands of people suffer at the hands of the Medical Industrial Complex, while these companies, collectively are worth one trillion.
It’s not just the companies’ fault. The politicians are paid off, and have allowed the insurance industry to not pay claims, and rake in record profits.
We just witnessed one person suffer.
I have watched thousands of people suffer for 30 years, so my empathy for one is a little low right now.