Mastodawn

We can imagine FBI agents investigating the killing of the UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson struggling to make a *short list* of people who have been wronged by the insurance company.

How did insurance companies become so hated?

Modern-day insurance has its origins in grassroots mutual aid programs such as the "Friendly Societies" in which workers motivated by care for one another would pool their resources and take care of each other. Insurance only became a racket after this model was captured by the state and for-profit corporations.

Though the proponents of capitalism and the state claim that centralization and privatization are essential for scaling up social infrastructure and making it run "more efficiently," state bureaucracy and for-profit models have chiefly served to concentrate control over everyone's lives in the hands of a few oligarchs.

And the more unevenly power is distributed in a society, the more volatile that society is bound to be.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-quarterly-of-healthcare-ethics/article/anarchy-and-its-overlooked-role-in-health-and-healthcare/B04AE2EBAC242460376400D0FBD347DD

Anarchy and Its Overlooked Role in Health and Healthcare | Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics | Cambridge Core

Anarchy and Its Overlooked Role in Health and Healthcare - Volume 32 Issue 3

Cambridge Core

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Ed Dec 5, 2024

@CrimethInc I saw a comment that said, "Every disgruntled/bereaved family member and every retired pediatric worker in the country is theoretically a suspect in this one. (In addition to family and coworkers.)"

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Kay Ohtie 🔜 FWA Dec 6, 2024

@CrimethInc "...in which workers motivated by care for one another would pool their resources and take care of each other."

Is this why employer-funded healthcare plans seem to have really good coverage compared to my past employer-sponsored plans and those I've seen others have? And maybe especially at an educational institution. HR always shares info each year on utilization of the pool between employee premiums and what the university pays in, and constantly tries to ride between 95-99%, only increasing premiums when it rides to 99% or over (and in theory decreasing if it dropped). And the plan terms are incredible for hospital and medication stuff, and very generous on specialists compared to others.

I dunno, maybe I lost the plot but it just kinda stuck out to me with that and how closely it feels like what I've got now mirrors that versus what it felt like on past plans feeling like I was just throwing into a pit and hoping it'd burp enough money at me for what I needed done.

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