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jodrellblankyesterday at 6:34 PM1 replyview on HN

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...


Replies

cubefoxyesterday at 7:27 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?

I'm not saying the number is zero. I'm saying the number is vastly negative. They are overall saving a lot of people rather than killing them. Health insurance companies are hugely net-positive.

> but sticking a label on it and saying "leftist extremism" and then denying real issues is not helping.

Talking about murdering CEOs is helping far, far less.

Imagine I believe that the Democrats are net-negative. Would this justify people saying that Democrat leaders should be murdered? Or that labelling these justifications of murder as "rightist extremism" is "not helping"?

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