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Dennis Donovan

(28,025 posts)
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 07:50 AM Dec 7

One MD's opinion on the shooting of the UHC CEO

Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬
‪@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
1/Tragic news broke this week: Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth was fatally shot in Midtown Manhattan. As a trauma surgeon, a survivor of gun violence, and someone closely following this story, I’ve been struck not only by the incident itself but also by the polarized reactions I’ve seen online.

‪Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬ ‪
@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
2/ The responses have revealed a troubling divide. While many expressed grief, others responded with indifference or even justification, citing grievances against the healthcare system. This anger reflects profound frustrations—but meeting violence with indifference undermines our shared humanity.

Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬ ‪
@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
3/ This tragedy forces us to confront an unsettling reality: for many, corporate healthcare represents harm—denied claims, unaffordable premiums, and medical bankruptcies. These grievances are valid, but we must separate our demand for systemic accountability from our response to individual loss.

‪Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬ ‪
@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
4/ Compassion is not absolution. Grieving a loss doesn’t absolve someone or their organization from accountability. But compassion is a radical act—a refusal to let justified anger erode our humanity. Dehumanization only perpetuates the cycles of harm we seek to dismantle.

Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬ ‪
@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
5/ Brian Thompson’s death highlights two intertwined crises: gun violence and healthcare inequities. Both demand bold, systemic action. Together, we must reimagine systems that prioritize people over profit and affirm the sanctity of human life.

Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA‬
‪@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
11m
6/ Gun violence claims 48,000+ lives annually in the U.S. It knows no boundaries—not wealth, race, or status. Whether it’s a child, a teenager, or a CEO, every life lost diminishes us all. Violence doesn’t discriminate, and neither can our response to it.

Joe Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA
‪@josephsakran.bsky.social‬
7/ In a fractured world, compassion is not weakness. It’s the foundation for building a just society. Accountability and empathy are not mutually exclusive—they are twin pillars of meaningful change. We owe it to all victims of gun violence to embody both.
December 7, 2024 at 7:33 AM


https://bsky.app/profile/josephsakran.bsky.social/post/3lcppfph2722h
36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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One MD's opinion on the shooting of the UHC CEO (Original Post) Dennis Donovan Dec 7 OP
I wonder if this doctor ever wrote about compassion... Think. Again. Dec 7 #1
Or died because they were denied care? Arazi Dec 7 #2
Or the thousands who die from insurance policies biophile Dec 7 #3
I agree... Think. Again. Dec 7 #12
Be wary Aussie105 Dec 7 #4
F'in A Right johnnyfins Dec 7 #9
THIS. yardwork Dec 7 #17
Am sure TSF will hop right on the MD's concerns about guns and medical care. allegorical oracle Dec 7 #5
Gun violence? SledDriver Dec 7 #6
Gun violence is gun violence. intheflow Dec 7 #8
I agree, we shouldn't dance on stranger's graves. intheflow Dec 7 #7
The problem is that this incident does johnnyfins Dec 7 #10
That's yet to be seen. Think. Again. Dec 7 #13
Kiss BeerBarrelPolka Dec 7 #11
Wrong focus, Doc. Icanthinkformyself Dec 7 #14
Unless change is forced on them NJCher Dec 8 #35
Spare us the sermons, doc. (nt) Paladin Dec 7 #15
Mr Thompson.... Mustellus Dec 7 #16
"but meeting violence with indifference undermines our shared humanity." WhiskeyGrinder Dec 7 #18
Lots of blather. Ursus Rex Dec 7 #19
The doctor is part of the problem. infullview Dec 7 #20
Our shared humanity has already been undermined Mr.WeRP Dec 7 #21
Gun violence and health insurance abuses: I don't expect improvement in either for the next 3Hotdogs Dec 7 #22
Don't tell me; let me guess: these doctors sit on the boards of directors Aristus Dec 7 #23
Would he have written this same commentary over the death of Al Capone? Random Boomer Dec 7 #24
Wtf did they expect? For DECADES EllieBC Dec 7 #25
"meeting violence with indifference undermines our shared humanity. " bucolic_frolic Dec 7 #26
Murder is murder. All forms are wrong. Kill or condemn to suffering and death usonian Dec 7 #27
Many people do not consider war murder Bluetus Dec 7 #30
I'm a pacifist and neither is acceptable to me. usonian Dec 7 #31
I somewhat disagree with the MD and do not accept anybody's guilt trip Bluetus Dec 7 #28
As ny niece (the daughter of two MDs) said last night in a family chat Jilly_in_VA Dec 7 #29
.. jfz9580m Dec 8 #34
Fuck the murdering gunfucker. Fuck Brian Thompson. Iggo Dec 7 #32
Oh give me a fucking break jfz9580m Dec 8 #33
I'm too busy grieving for Assad right now. nt Crunchy Frog Dec 8 #36

Think. Again.

(19,747 posts)
1. I wonder if this doctor ever wrote about compassion...
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 08:22 AM
Dec 7

....for any of the other thousands of Americans who die by violence each year.

Arazi

(7,169 posts)
2. Or died because they were denied care?
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 08:35 AM
Dec 7

How many times has he grieved patients who were financially ruined because of medical bankruptcies?

Seriously, why does the rich CEO get this reaction?

biophile

(492 posts)
3. Or the thousands who die from insurance policies
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 08:36 AM
Dec 7

I think he does mourn them. But while violence is abhorrent, as a last resort- it does get attention. So I understand his sentiment but also understand the rage.

Think. Again.

(19,747 posts)
12. I agree...
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:13 AM
Dec 7

... I hate that the only way to try and stop the torture, finacial and emotional ruin, and death that the insurance base their business model on, has come to this.

SledDriver

(2,104 posts)
6. Gun violence?
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:02 AM
Dec 7

This wasn't a drive by, where the shooter just did a "spray and pray" with little to no regard for innocent bystanders.
This wasn't some random act of violence involving a gun.

This was a targeted attack on a specific individual with a weapon that was purpose-tailored for the task. That weapon just happened to be a gun.

intheflow

(29,121 posts)
8. Gun violence is gun violence.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:09 AM
Dec 7

Why are you splitting hairs just because it wasn’t random? Way more people are killed by people they know wielding guns, in targeted attacks.

intheflow

(29,121 posts)
7. I agree, we shouldn't dance on stranger's graves.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:07 AM
Dec 7

However, the country obviously needs this kind of shock to the system to jumpstart the insurance industry into taking customers’ angst seriously. And also to start talking seriously about universal healthcare.

Icanthinkformyself

(310 posts)
14. Wrong focus, Doc.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:16 AM
Dec 7

When those who benefit the most from denial of care recognize that THEY are the problem the trauma they have created for us and themselves will begin to subside. But, it's the healthcare insurance monoliths that must apologize and reform. The healthcare insurance racket requires major reform. What we keep hearing is the executives need more security. If they refuse to make the necessary reforms to the system, all the security in the world won't help. Greed leads to shortsightedness leads to losing it all.

NJCher

(38,420 posts)
35. Unless change is forced on them
Sun Dec 8, 2024, 06:16 AM
Dec 8

They will beef up security for their major execs and then tell us that higher overhead necessitates a price increase.

WhiskeyGrinder

(24,185 posts)
18. "but meeting violence with indifference undermines our shared humanity."
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:07 AM
Dec 7

Could just as easily be directed at anyone who works in a claims department/corporation. The suffering caused by insurance company denials is violence and their weapon is indifference.

Ursus Rex

(300 posts)
19. Lots of blather.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:10 AM
Dec 7

Just a flood of words that don’t really do much except distract the reader for a few minutes, like a fast food media thread.

infullview

(1,062 posts)
20. The doctor is part of the problem.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:16 AM
Dec 7

I don’t see him running to Canada or any country that has national health care to sign up for work. Private practice is very profitable. Doctors do everything they can to lobby against universal heath care in this country, so fuck him and his opinion. They mean nothing.

Mr.WeRP

(678 posts)
21. Our shared humanity has already been undermined
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:28 AM
Dec 7

We are far passed that point. The wealthiest 1% have proven themselves as an existential threat the 99%. They are reaping what they sowed.

3Hotdogs

(13,704 posts)
22. Gun violence and health insurance abuses: I don't expect improvement in either for the next
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:39 AM
Dec 7

four years.

Do you?

Aristus

(68,769 posts)
23. Don't tell me; let me guess: these doctors sit on the boards of directors
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:46 AM
Dec 7

of insurance companies.

Or maybe they’re the staff MD’s who deny coverage for patients they’ve never met or examined.

Go ahead and try to shrug off that target, guys. But you would be better off supporting insurance reform.

Random Boomer

(4,271 posts)
24. Would he have written this same commentary over the death of Al Capone?
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:48 AM
Dec 7

Based on all the news that is emerging, United Healthcare is the equivalent of a modern-day mob business, built on exploitation and graft. It has corrupted the government, as witnessed by the amount of police resources being devoted to this one murder, far in excess of what any other ordinary citizen would expect for their murder.

How many people grieved for the death of a gangster? How many pundits mused on the lack of concern for a gangster's death?

EllieBC

(3,400 posts)
25. Wtf did they expect? For DECADES
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:50 AM
Dec 7

people have been met with indifference from healthcare systems. For DECADES they have been treated poorly and literally left to die and now suddenly the system that did that is demanding empathy???

bucolic_frolic

(47,921 posts)
26. "meeting violence with indifference undermines our shared humanity. "
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:55 AM
Dec 7

Oh, right. You mean like when insurrectionists are regarded as tourists. Gotcha.

usonian

(15,094 posts)
27. Murder is murder. All forms are wrong. Kill or condemn to suffering and death
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 11:25 AM
Dec 7
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219791824#post14

Spoiler:
To everyone transfixed by the shooting of a millionaire:

Where are the headlines and flame wars when kids, spouses, people guilty only of being Black are killed every day?.

NOBODY CARES

Bluetus

(381 posts)
30. Many people do not consider war murder
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 09:54 PM
Dec 7

Through the ages, many philosophers have argued about "justifiable war".

Those same philosophers might struggle answering if the present case is more like war or more like a common street murder.

I'm not decided one way or the other. In war, often the people most responsible survive. In this case, what UHC does is horrendous to the point of dystopia, and it out to be the worst of crimes. But AFAIK, what they are doing is perfectly legal, raising the question of who is really responsible for what is happening to our HC system.

usonian

(15,094 posts)
31. I'm a pacifist and neither is acceptable to me.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:09 PM
Dec 7

YMMV.

Murder the poor, get a promotion. Murder the rich, get a place in history. I am starting to suspect a Zodiac copycat, given the wacky clue.

I will try to spend some time there next few days on means of peaceful resistance to the presumptive junta.

People have fought valiantly and pracefully before.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219759252

Bluetus

(381 posts)
28. I somewhat disagree with the MD and do not accept anybody's guilt trip
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 11:59 AM
Dec 7

if I don't display a sufficient amount of compassion for the dead CEO. The doctor is right that having 400 million guns in circulation is part of the problem. And our HC system, especially the funding/insurance part of it, is not just ineffective and harmful, it is deliberately designed to enrich the few at the expense of the many by taking advantage of people at their most vulnerable.

But that is only part of the story. None of this would have happened if the media, the AMA , our politicians and other responsible parties had been doing their jobs all along.

There is a national indifference to this CEO's death, and that is sad, as it reflects on where we are as a society. But spare me the guilt trips. I take no responsibility of this, and I place the responsibility squarely on the people who created, sustain, and enable this wicked system to exist. Nobody should have to die because of this. Not the CEO, Not the millions of people that CEO's company killed through denial of service. The media's rule is "if it bleeds, it leads" so this was increasingly inevitable. We may never know the entire story here because the gunman will eventually be identified and will probably take his own life before capture. Clearly he felt that his most important purpose was to bring this issue to the forefront. That, along with the CEO's death, is equally sad in my book. All of this was preventable. All of this is the direct result of large, powerful organizations in pursuit of unimaginable levels of wealth. There never should be an overriding profit motive in our education, our water and air, our food supply, or our health care. You want to invent the next computer, car, or robot to get rich? Have at it. But health care must be considered a basic human right. That is the real story here.

I have no joy in seeing any CEO shot dead, even one in charge of a company so villainous as UHC. But I do take some satisfaction is seeing the media baffled and surprised as to why the American people care about this more than they care whether Hunter Biden failed to check a box on a gun permit for a gun he owned a week and never used.

Dear media, welcome to the real world, if only for a day. And if it is only for a day, then I'm afraid this won't be the last such case we see. This is on you, not me.

Jilly_in_VA

(11,250 posts)
29. As ny niece (the daughter of two MDs) said last night in a family chat
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 12:33 PM
Dec 7

"My plan only covers an anticipated amount of sympathy."

jfz9580m

(15,584 posts)
34. ..
Sun Dec 8, 2024, 03:02 AM
Dec 8

It has produced some high quality dark humor.

We are all under a lot of mental stress these days and while I don’t like violence ever (I am pretty sure that in any scenario involving violence I would be the victim not the perpetrator), dark humour is one of the healthiest coping mechanisms there is:

https://theconversation.com/how-neoliberalism-is-damaging-your-mental-health-90565

Iggo

(48,644 posts)
32. Fuck the murdering gunfucker. Fuck Brian Thompson.
Sat Dec 7, 2024, 10:21 PM
Dec 7

The manner of Thompson’s death doesn’t make him any less despicable than the murdering asshole who shot him.

I can despise both of them.

Why can’t everyone else?


jfz9580m

(15,584 posts)
33. Oh give me a fucking break
Sun Dec 8, 2024, 02:38 AM
Dec 8

Violence and social unrest are bad for all people.

Please spare me this performative pearl clutching.
The smell of bullshit..

I am logging off for six months, but I had to piss on this piece of real virtue signalling. This is virtue signalling.

Yes vigilante justice and violence are never a solution.

Because you or I could be the next one when the rule of law breaks down. The billionaires will just up their security.

But spare me this purely theatrical virtuous shit.

This is the one story in which the reactions transcend race, class, party, age and gender. It is the one story uniting anyone with any familiarity with the US healthcare system. It is about real anger not internet trolls.
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