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cubefoxyesterday at 5:29 PM1 replyview on HN

> There's probably something eloquent by Hannah Arendt about how 190,000 Americans killed by health insurance companies

Health insurance companies don't kill people, quite the opposite. If it weren't for health insurance, a lot more people would die. Murdering their CEOs is crazy extremism.


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jodrellblankyesterday at 6:34 PM

Physicians For A National Health Program put the figure at 200,000 people annually[1]. What's your source for saying the number is zero? When they deny claims, people die. When they override medical doctor recommendations and insist on cheaper treatments, people die. When they tangle up customers with paperwork and bureaucracy, that some people can't access the health insurance they pay for. When they take money out of the system as profit, that money isn't helping the sick. When United Healthcare spends $12M/year on lobbying[1] it isn't doing that to improve patient care.

> Murdering their CEOs is crazy extremism.

When a system doesn't have a pressure release valve, the pressure doesn't go away. When a system blocks or ignores peaceful protest, the pressure doesn't go away. The thread running through my comment is that harming humans is wrong, yes murder is wrong - but sticking a label on it and saying "leftist extremism" and then denying real issues is not helping. The system needs ways to hear people saying "things aren't fine" before those people go crazy extremist, not after.

[1] https://pnhp.org/news/estimated-us-deaths-associated-with-he...

[2] https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries/summ...

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