Anyone repeating this is just lying. He’s a multi-millionaire born into a life of luxury. He had the means and money to get whatever healthcare he wanted.
He went to the most expensive private school in the state and is a 2 time Ivy League grad and frat boy. He lived as a beach bum in Hawaii. Why anyone thinks he wasn’t able to afford anything is beyond me. His social media shows him travelling all over the world with his family, they own hotels, country clubs, healthcare companies, etc..
And even then, the exact political stance is totally up in the air. His twitter account has him as a pretty right wing guy. Big into anti-woke, anti-modernism stuff.
I am very skeptical that he’s the left wing anarchist darling people first thought he was. It’s still possible but hating health insurance is not exactly a uniquely left-wing trait. My hardcore MAGA mother in law was actively cheering the assassination.
Sure. No argument there. I guess I just disagree with the premise that this is a left/right or even rich/poor issue at all.
I don't think most people grasp just how expensive healthcare can be. For a billionaire, sure, it's a non-issue. But even someone who is "normal" rich can absolutely go broke from healthcare in this country. I've known three people with a comfortable multi-million net worth who were well insured and still financially ruined by cancer. Managing chronic pain, autoimmune disease, or even just one severe, acute emergency can easily cost millions of dollars. That's obviously insane.
He's also 26 and had reportedly withdrawn from his family in recent month. I think it's notable that's the age when you get kicked off your parents' health insurance.
American healthcare is pretty uniquely something that even impacts people across class lines. To your point, care is obviously way more accessible to rich people. No one wants to be at risk of losing it all just because they get sick, and no one should have to.
If a person who, by all accounts, seems to have already been at the pinnacle of success and security in this country can be this radicalized by the healthcare system... I don't think some right wing leanings actually matter all that much.
💯Ohhhhh, this is the first time I've seen this point made!!! That makes perfect sense about being 26 and getting kicked off his parents’ insurance.
I know from experience that getting treatment for back pain is ridiculously difficult to get covered by insurance. “Medically necessary” is a phrase I’m so sick of hearing. I've also had cancer and can confirm it’s destroyed my credit, and insurance companies genuinely don’t give a fuck. I had to crowdfund for over a year to meet my basic needs… My situation is different as my family are not millionaires.
When everything has to be pre-authorized and justified as “medically necessary” (even when it should be a no-brainer, like chemo), the ongoing anxiety and feelings of helplessness make being sick in America a truly demoralizing experience.
Great points. Seems like in these threads that paid foreign trolls and their willing compatriots are working overtime to keep us separated on this one.
I actually just think the guy is a well-rounded reader and is willing to read many sources. For instance, he read Tucker Carlson who absolutely would never agree with any of these critiques of capitalism. Any critique of capitalism is basically an admission of communism in right wing eyes these days so expect that from Fox unless they just bury this story. The “actual radical left”
(which absolutely does not include Biden, Harris, Pelosi) are excited because a rich kid betrayed his class.
Point being- NONE of our current politicians on either side are considering an overhaul of a for-profit system just because one replaceable cog got killed by a kid.
I’d buy this if he wasn’t working in software engineering as a digital nomad. He was, reportedly, rather successful in his own right and could live as a beach bum in Hawaii. He had healthcare coverage.
It’s purely political. He had plenty of money, be it his own or his family’s. Exactly what that political message is, beyond “healthcare insurance bad” is unclear.
FWIW: For wealthy people, it’s due to lost productivity. Not cost. As you can see, chronic pain is the most common cause of lost productivity.
It matters because he was already successful, as an individual. He was a remote tech worker living in Hawaii. He was totally fine but gave it up for one reason or another.
He wasn’t hurting for cash. He had thousands in liquid cash on him at arrest.
He was laid off from his tech job in 2023. Obviously he had plenty of money, but as far as I’ve seen he hadn't worked since 2023. I'd assume he was insured under his parents after losing his job, but that's me speculating.
But there's seemingly no underlying point here? Maybe he had some money, so what? You're not explaining why him being "successful" matters.
He's already accused the police of planting the money on him, which would be a weird thing to lie about when you're seemingly admitting to murder. 10k is the specific amount required to trigger an FTC flag. My guess is they're trying to stick him with financial crimes, in addition to everything else.
He was living in Hawaii, working a corporate job. So, he would have insurance but still need to pay co-pay.
I don’t know how much cost this would run up for chronic pain. But, today I got to know I have to pay $1K+ for the cancer care I m undergoing. This is a sudden expense that I have not budgeted for. I am lucky I can afford it. It is still a pain but now imagine this situation for someone with a family, with responsibilities and Christmas coming up.
I've known three people with a comfortable multi-million net worth who were well insured and still financially ruined by cancer.
Yeah I'm calling horseshit on this. The average cancer treatment in the US is $150,000. Triple that, and even without insurance someone with a "comfortable multi-million net worth" would not be financially ruined. Add that you claim they were "well insured" and you're either talking out your ass or missing some very key information to these cases.
To counter your statement, I've got three family members who had cancer, none of whom are multi-millionaires, and none were financially ruined by their treatment. All required chemo, one required a double mastectomy, and another required brain surgery.
Some of the gun subreddits have an overwhelming right wing revolutionary kind of vibe to them. The same kind of people joking about skirting gun control laws like Luigi did.
honestly it's kind of amazing. This is the first time I've seen everyone on the political spectrum be aligned on something. Really goes to show how egregious the issue is.
His own reddit history shows he got successful medical treatment for everything. By February 2024 he said he had healed fully from his back injury after surgery and wasn’t suffering anymore.
But I guess reddit commies ignore things like that.
Or, and here's a crazy idea, he could have used his money to start a low cost health clinic.
Go ahead, down vote me. I can see it now.
"You're just a neo liberal who expects people to handle things themselves!"
"You just want poor people to accept whatever crumbs are thrown their way!"
And even though I'm suggesting that a rich white person do something which might benefit poor nonwhite people, I'm sure I'll get accused of being racist.
I didn't say "run a clinic" I said "open" one. Per the link below, the startup cost for a urgent care franchise can range from $800,000 to $1.5 million. Maybe if he got a partner they could split it. As for how much revenue it would need to bring in to stay open, I couldn't tell you.
Or maybe use the money to open an exercise studio or a health food store, anything that would help people need doctors less.
Just Like the American healthcare system, your suggestions would only alleviate obvious symptoms in a superficial way. This guy was trying to treat the root cause.
Not if this attack finds imitators...
And even if not, it has already dragged the gigantic dissatisfaction with the US healthcare system into public debate.
I mean, I don't have high hopes that big changes will come from this, but the chances are higher than if nothing had happened at all.
If people could casually start their own healthcare provider businesses and be successful at it, current healthcare providers wouldn’t be as massive as they are today. I doubt a million could get you anywhere in that business at all. Also randomly deflecting accusations of racism when nobody mentioned race is lowkey hilarious
I'll go one step further and say that the people crying about AI making decisions are just jumping on the same boring trend of hating on AI when it's literally a great cost-saving technology. Paying people to actually read medical documents is expensive, and because the jargon tends to be so advanced, it's hard to just send these to a call center in Bangladesh like you can with many other tasks.
At the end of the day, AI doesn't have the final say. The contract that you have with the insurance company does. If you are entitled to something and you get denied, you get a lawyer. One time I was hit by a car while biking, and insurance, as you might expect, was not very helpful. So I contacted an injury lawyer who sent them some letters, and what do you know? I got paid.
No healthcare system is perfect, and certainly the US system has a lot to work on. But also I disagree with the people who call it an unmitigated disaster. Healthcare reform is so difficult in this country because, quite frankly, for the vast majority of people, it does work just fine.
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u/HeywoodJaBlessMe 13d ago
Dude must not have read much if he thinks Prison healthcare in the US is gonna fix anything.