One story that we couldn’t keep out of the press and that contributed most to my decision to walk away from my career in 2008 involved Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old leukemia patient in California whose scheduled liver transplant was postponed at the last minute when Cigna told her surgeons it wouldn’t pay. Cigna’s medical director, 2,500 miles away from Ms. Sarkisyan, said she was too sick for the procedure. Her family stirred up so much media attention that Cigna relented, but it was too late. She died a few hours after Cigna’s change of heart.

Ms. Sarkisyan’s death affected me personally and deeply. As a father, I couldn’t imagine the depth of despair her parents were facing. I turned in my notice a few weeks later. I could not in good conscience continue being a spokesman for an industry that was making it increasingly difficult for Americans to get often lifesaving care.

One of my last acts before resigning was helping to plan a meeting for investors and Wall Street financial analysts — similar to the one that UnitedHealthcare canceled after Mr. Thompson’s horrific killing. These annual investor days, like the consumerism idea I helped spread, reveal an uncomfortable truth about our health insurance system: that shareholders, not patient outcomes, tend to drive decisions at for-profit health insurance companies.

  • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 days ago

    The people celebrating this murder as and act of heroism has disgusted me to the core

    Go back to reddit then, pussy, class traitors aren’t welcome here.

    That it’s so widely believed violence and self-justice will solve the root cause of this system when it will just affect a symptom but not solve anything in the long run.

    You’re right, continued passivity will fix everything!

    I too hope and think the jury will find a decision that is just.

    Exactly, Luigi should be freed!

    The only way where I see violence justified is in authoritarian dictatorships, where the public has no sovereignty and the dictator acts willingly harmful to their populace in either exploiting them, attacking them and killing them

    Soooooooo Brian Thompson except he just didn’t have the exact title you demand for violence? Because uh… That fits him perfectly, so maybe get your tongue out of the shitstain’s dead and rotting asshole, yeah?

    • timestatic@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      Soooooooo Brian Thompson except he just didn’t have the exact title you demand for violence? Because uh… That fits him perfectly, so maybe get your tongue out of the shitstain’s dead and rotting asshole, yeah?

      People like you is why lemmy will never have a mass appeal. I have not been insulting to any individual. I think this quote makes the level at which the likes of you are speaking quite obvious. With people like you it seems there is no conversation to be had

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        People like you is why lemmy will never have a mass appeal

        If the majority are anything like you then good, lol

        I have not been insulting to any individual.

        Your bootlicking offends me greatly, actually

        With people like you it seems there is no conversation to be had

        Well you started your side of this conversation sucking the toes of a dead mass murderer, why the fuck should I want to have a pleasant conversation with someone who sympathizers with a mass murderer? Maybe you should be a better person to deserve having a decent conversation

        • Universal Monk@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          All because I called you out for advocating murder?! lmao

          Nah, no leather taste in my mouth, friend. I’m glad to have stood up against the murderous glee I see on Lemmy these days. :)

          • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            All because

            You think being called a bootlicker is some extreme response? I knew you were a bitch but damn, extra weak

            I called you out for advocating murder

            You didn’t “call out” shit, you painted yourself as a class traitor who deserves to get Thompson’d as well

            I see you’re savouring it well, suck harder and perhaps you’ll be rewarded

            • Universal Monk@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              You didn’t “call out” shit, you painted yourself as a class traitor who deserves to get Thompson’d as well

              So because I disagree with you, I should be murdered? What the fuck, dude?

              • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                5 days ago

                Class traitors get what the royalty get, don’t like it? Learn to not be a class traitor

                Checked your post history and noticed you post to the conservative community so uh, yeah, snowflake cuckservative that absolutely deserves the treatment your beloved Nazi forerunners got detected

                • Universal Monk@sh.itjust.works
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                  5 days ago

                  So because I post to a conservative community, I’m a class traitor? I’m a socialist and I voted socialist in the last election. I also created, mod, and post to socialist communities.

                  Be mad all you want. I don’t advocate for murder. Regardless of how much Lemmy gets mad about the fact.