Brian Thompson's murder and the question of whether health care is a right
By definition, it can't be
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Authorities are still looking for the guy who did this:
• UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in Manhattan on Wednesday morning in a “brazen, targeted attack” as he walked toward the company’s annual investor conference, New York police said. “I want to be clear: At this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
• The gunman remains on the loose. The NYPD released footage of the hooded suspect at a nearby Starbucks before the shooting. And police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he may have dropped some vital clues while fleeing.
• A motive is unclear, and police haven’t announced one. But a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was aware of concerning threats against its high-level executives.
Regarding motive, the fact that words like “deny” and “delay” were written on the shell casings may provide a clue.
And with regard to the threats mentioned above, I don’t doubt that there are some good people with such serious health issues that they’re desperate have been denied claims by United Health and other insurance companies.
The whole web of interconnection between medical practices, hospitals and insurance companies is undeniably complex. The “Affordable” Care Act exacerbated that. And it also entrenched the notion among the post-American populace that health care is a right.
I’m not going to venture into the weeds of wonky proposals to ease the complexity by some degree. For one, I’m not qualified, and for another thing, such rabbit-hole diving keeps us from starting with basic principles.
Health care is going to get rationed one way or another - either by the market, by insurance companies, or the government. There is no “system” under which a patient is automatically guaranteed immediate world-class care at an affordable price.
But let’s peel back another layer.
Health care is really just another human activity. The reason we can speak of it is because some of our ancestors now shrouded in the mists of antiquity got the idea to care for people’s health.
It’s an effort that is put forth by volition. No one would want to go to a surgeon or oncologist who was forced at gunpoint to provide his or her services.
Therefore, they are people who make their livelihoods with this particular activity.
A right cannot depend on the volitional activity of one’s fellow human being.
If no car mechanic in town wants to repair your vehicle, them’s the breaks. If all the producers of hamburgers in the world went out of business, we’d have no hamburgers to eat.
With regard to the fact that some health issues require immediate care, that goes back to the Hippocratic oath. A doctor is obligated to treat someone in dire circumstances. But at some point the cost will have to be borne by someone.
Back in the days when the ACA was being debated, the point was made, rightly so, that catastrophic health care is mostly what anybody needs. The analogy of your car insurance not paying for oil changes was often invoked.
Health insurance companies don’t want to discuss that, of course. They have a vested interest in a patient having to jump through bureaucratic hoops to find out if some particular aspect of treatment is covered by his or her policy. Lots of go-between bureaucrats’ salaries depend on it.
But if we’re being honest, it’s clear to see that the elegant simplicity of leaving insurance out of most health care transactions, and of real price transparency, and of a core relationship of doctors and patient is the way out of our morass.
Health care cannot by definition be a right, for the same reason that “clean” air and water, a home, or a job cannot be a right.
We can’t make our fellow human beings provide these things.