[HN Gopher] Software developer arrested in connection with murde...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Software developer arrested in connection with murder of healthcare
       executive
        
       Author : 1vuio0pswjnm7
       Score  : 91 points
       Date   : 2024-12-09 21:17 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | hilux wrote:
       | One of us, one of us!
        
         | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
         | Alternatively:                 [...]       You may look like we
         | do, talk like we do       But you know how it is
         | [Chorus]       You're not one of us, not one of us       No,
         | you're not one of us       Not one of us, not one of us
         | No, you're not one of us
         | 
         | "Not one of us" by Peter Gabriel
         | 
         | https://genius.com/Peter-gabriel-not-one-of-us-lyrics
        
           | Joeboy wrote:
           | You were, I felt, robbing me of my rightful chances
           | My picture clear, everything seemed so easy              And
           | so I dealt you the blow, one of us had to go         Now it's
           | different, I want you to know
           | 
           | "One of Us" by Abba
        
             | tzs wrote:
             | Gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us
             | Gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us
             | 
             | From "Pinhead" by the Ramones, inspired by the 1932 film
             | "Freaks".
        
       | lawlessone wrote:
       | >Police revealed that finding the 26-year-old was a complete
       | surprise, and that they did not have his name on a list of
       | suspects prior to today
       | 
       | So when they said they knew who he was yesterday it was a lie.
        
         | BryantD wrote:
         | Eric Adams doesn't have a strong reality filter, and it's
         | usually good to cross-check things he says, especially if he's
         | the only person saying them. I don't think he consciously makes
         | things up, he just tends to gravitate towards saying things
         | that sound good in the moment.
         | 
         | Or, if we're being really charitable, they were chasing the
         | wrong guy.
        
           | byteknight wrote:
           | All you did was make the phrase "makes things up" more
           | palatable. It still means the same thing. He lies.
        
             | BryantD wrote:
             | I like understanding why people are making things up.
             | 
             | Edit: sorry, I was a bit snarky there and I shouldn't have
             | been. I was in fact splitting a hair there; it's a useful
             | one for me but it's far from obligatory.
        
               | lazyeye wrote:
               | What lies has Eric Adams said?
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | He's currently indicted for criminal fraud.
               | https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/25/nyregion/eric-
               | adams-...
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | He lies constantly. Like, he lives in New Jersey and
               | pretends to live in NYC. He pretends to be a vegan.
               | 
               | Also continually uses strange phrases in speeches that he
               | made up, like "all your haters will be waiters when you
               | sit down at the table of success", or saying "New York
               | City is the Dublin/Istanbul/Port au Prince of America"
               | whenever he's talking to an a cultural group.
        
         | tacticalturtle wrote:
         | It was specifically Eric Adams who sort of implied that - but
         | it was a bit of a cagey response, and NYPD later stated that
         | day they had no ID:
         | 
         | https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5028239-mayor-adams-sa...
         | 
         | Given Adam's past year, there was never a reason to take what
         | he says at face value.
        
           | gowld wrote:
           | I don't think that's a fair characterization.
           | 
           | > When asked by a reporter if police had the suspect's name,
           | Adams said, "We don't want to release that now. If you do,
           | you're basically giving a tip to the person we are fine with
           | seeking, and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all.
           | Let him continue to believe he can hide behind a mask."
           | 
           | Grammatical flub aside ("the person we are fine with
           | seeking"), he is just saying that he doesn't want to say
           | anything about the info being requested. The police release
           | information that they have decided is in their interest to
           | release. Everything else is classified confidential by
           | default.
        
             | d0mine wrote:
             | "Let him continue to believe he can hide behind a mask"
             | implies that he can't hide and they know his name. A lie in
             | other words.
        
         | gamblor956 wrote:
         | That's a common tactic to try and get a suspect to turn
         | themselves in.
         | 
         | Sometimes it works. (Most suspects turn themselves in for
         | crimes they've committed. It's actually the exception when
         | police need to go out to arrest a criminal suspect.)
        
           | gowld wrote:
           | That's when the suspect's identity is known, and the suspect
           | would rather face a bail hearing then try to keep hiding.
        
             | gamblor956 wrote:
             | Sure, for nonviolent criminal offenses. It helps that
             | accepting responsibility for one's actions (as demonstrated
             | by turning oneself in) generally results in significantly
             | reduced sentencing.
             | 
             | For violent offenses, and especially for high-profile
             | murder cases, they don't give the suspect the option of
             | turning themselves in.
        
         | asdefghyk wrote:
         | RE "....when they said they knew who he was yesterday it was a
         | lie....."
         | 
         | Was an obvious lie ...was my first reaction.
         | 
         | If they did know the name - it could have been used to retrieve
         | numerous photos - and other evidence. That said the accused
         | person left several of their online profiles online . even a
         | facebook profile !!!
        
       | avalys wrote:
       | > Police revealed that finding the 26-year-old was a complete
       | surprise, and that they did not have his name on a list of
       | suspects prior to today.
       | 
       | "I'd rather be lucky than good!" Impressive that they do seem to
       | have found the right guy, based on the documents in his
       | possession, and this was apparently due solely to the one
       | photograph of his face that the police found and released.
       | 
       | I also note that this guy apparently had back surgery a few
       | months ago.
        
         | qzw wrote:
         | I wonder if the McDonald's employee really recognized him from
         | those couple of off-angle photos or if Mr. Mangione himself
         | initiated the action in order to let someone "deserving"
         | collect the reward. It seems to me that he wanted to be caught,
         | and the amount of evidence that he was carrying on him is
         | obviously meant to establish his identity beyond any doubt. The
         | amount of meticulous planning he undertook for the actual
         | shooting contrasts with the trail of evidence that he kept
         | dropping along the way. He would've basically never been found
         | if he had just worn a pair of sunglasses.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | https://github.com/lnmangione
        
         | lawlessone wrote:
         | Lol this has an extra badge it didn't have when i seen it an
         | hour ago.
        
       | avalys wrote:
       | You know, all you people who are cheering this guy on - have you
       | ever worked for a company that had customers? Have you ever
       | learned that some of those customers are unhappy? Have you ever
       | decided that some of those unhappy customers were unreasonable,
       | or even totally wrong, given all the facts?
       | 
       | How would you feel if one of those unhappy customers showed up at
       | your home and shot you dead?
       | 
       | If your reaction is "Oh, but I'm not the CEO!" you're deluding
       | yourself (at best).
        
         | ausbah wrote:
         | false equivalence. insurance companies are in the business of
         | denying coverage that could improve treatment, quality of life,
         | and sometimes even someone's life just to increase the bottom
         | line. an dissatisfied saas cx isn't the same.
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | I guess "I work only on useless stuff that no one cares much
           | about" is a valid response, sure.
        
             | wpm wrote:
             | I work on shit that doesn't deny people life saving
             | coverage.
        
             | anonymousab wrote:
             | There is a wide variety of jobs between "try to maximize
             | denials and ensure maximal suffering and customer death as
             | often as possible" American medical insurance company CEO,
             | and useless trash job worker.
             | 
             | Many of those jobs even include rich CEOs of billion dollar
             | insurance companies in industries that manage to actually
             | fulfill a (comparatively) reasonable amount of customer
             | claims.
        
             | olddustytrail wrote:
             | It's a hell of a lot better than "people care about what I
             | do because I ruin their lives" now isn't it?
        
           | aeonik wrote:
           | Someone could just as easily saying tech workers are
           | destroying the world.
           | 
           | Something along the lines of how technology dehumanizes and
           | displaces us.
           | 
           | That person could then move to a shack in Montana and start
           | mailing bombs to the engineers and tech workers.
        
             | tartoran wrote:
             | Well, tech workers aren't directly to blame but they're
             | surely enabling bigger men to do their dirty deeds.
             | 
             | Time to reflect how your work is affecting the world,
             | folks. But even if you take action and quit now it's likely
             | they'll find other guns to hire. If you want to make a
             | difference you have to do a lot more than that.
        
             | crawfordcomeaux wrote:
             | And that person could be found to be making accurate
             | assessments. What of it?
             | 
             | We are ALL complicit in the systems behind all this when we
             | are the ones building and maintaining them.
             | 
             | Myself included.
             | 
             | The first step to ethical responsibility is honestly
             | acknowledging what I've been taught to do and have done
             | without unlearning those things. Second step is to consent
             | to unlearning that and learning a different way that
             | addresses all the issues. Third step is actually doing the
             | unlearning/learning.
        
             | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
             | It's true that AI will be a tool used to harm people in a
             | broad set of use cases, but the tools are too far removed
             | from their respective applications in people's minds.
             | People directly deal with health insurance companies, not
             | the software vendors that sell the tools with sanitized
             | descriptions.
        
             | happytoexplain wrote:
             | It feels dishonest to imply that software engineers and
             | tech workers, broadly, are comparable to major USA
             | healthcare CEOs in their perceived devilhood status on
             | average. Major social media and tech giant CEOs, sure, but
             | even then I think they might still be a little lower on the
             | list.
             | 
             | And if you're not doing that, then your point doesn't seem
             | to make sense in the context of the thread.
        
               | aeonik wrote:
               | "Someone" could make the comparison. (I personally don't,
               | it's all too complicated for me)
               | 
               | Trying to highlight different perspectives people can
               | have, and to challenge readers to reflect on the use of
               | violence.
               | 
               | Pick any arbitrary group of people, and you can find
               | another group that thinks they are destroying the world.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski
               | 
               | All that being said, obviously there's no doubt that the
               | healthcare system is pretty messed up.
        
         | llamaimperative wrote:
         | I'm not cheering this guy on but you're not paying attention if
         | you think people's complaints about health insurance in general
         | _and UHG in particular_ amount to "unhappy customers."
         | 
         | The entire system is an ineffective accountability sink that is
         | highly vulnerable to vertical mergers that capture _incredible_
         | amounts of money from our society while providing _empirically
         | subpar_ results -- results on a dimension that matter quite a
         | lot to people (the health and wellbeing of their loved ones)
         | 
         | Go do some Googling on the antitrust suits against the
         | different combinations of UnitedHealthcare, Optum, and OptumRx.
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | The people that should be blamed are the politicians that
           | created this mess in the first place, not the people
           | administering the broken system that they can't change
           | unilaterally.
        
             | johnnyanmac wrote:
             | > they can't change unilaterally.
             | 
             | well that shows why you're not aligned with those out there
             | who are frustrated with Healthcare. We weaken universal
             | healthcare almost the moment the administration shifts. It
             | may as well be unilateral.
        
             | hilux wrote:
             | UnitedHealthcare is pretty well-established to be much
             | worse than average within the industry. This is not new
             | news.
        
             | tartoran wrote:
             | The people administering these broken systems who are being
             | paid huge salaries are totally innocent, they had no other
             | alternative, they wanted regular salaries and to do good to
             | their customers but were forced into these jobs.
             | 
             | /s
             | 
             | #FORCED_CEO_LABOR_HAS_DIRE_CONSEQUENCES
        
             | a12k wrote:
             | People do blame the politicians, but they rightly also
             | blame anyone who has a hand in and nexus to furthering the
             | rotten system. CEOs, AI algorithms people who write
             | algorithms to deny coverage, software developers who ship
             | it to production, etc are all culpable to some degree. The
             | bigger the nexus, the more the culpability.
             | 
             | Night janitor? Probably not enough nexus to be blamed. The
             | Tech Lead on the "Deny Healthcare for Corporate Profits"
             | initiative? Probably as culpable as the CEO.
        
             | mupuff1234 wrote:
             | Execs of companies beyond a certain size are part of the
             | political elite - in fact they probably have more political
             | strength then the average politician.
        
             | jjulius wrote:
             | No, it's not that black-and-white. The politicians are to
             | blame, as are the corporations and business interests who
             | continue to take advantage of the system for financial
             | gain, as opposed to working to fix it from within.
        
             | acdha wrote:
             | The system was created at their behest specifically not to
             | reduce their profitability. If you didn't follow the debate
             | 15 years ago, the ACA was the compromise adopted after the
             | healthcare industry plowed money into advertisements,
             | lobbying, and astroturf to kill the idea of a public
             | option. The concept traces back to the Heritage
             | Foundation's proposal offered after the healthcare industry
             | killed the Clinton healthcare plan in 1993, but the
             | Republicans immediately switched to opposing that as soon
             | as it had any chance of passing because literal billions
             | were on the line as soon as insurers couldn't drop the most
             | expensive customers from their pools.
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | What role did the CEO who was killed play in that debate
               | 15 years ago?
               | 
               | Why are you still shifting blame from the politicians who
               | created this system? They didn't have to listen to the
               | healthcare industry. They are accountable to the public.
               | They got voted into office and they put this system in
               | place. Of course the healthcare CEOs are going to argue
               | in their own interest - but they don't call the shots
               | here! The politicians do.
        
               | acdha wrote:
               | A better question would be why you're trying so hard to
               | exonerate some of the richest and most powerful people in
               | the country. Trying to blame nebulous politicians without
               | thinking about how they got elected or what they were
               | asked to do legislatively, or how much public opinion is
               | shaped by mass communications and the status quo, feels
               | like a joke about a physicist trying to say another field
               | shouldn't exist because their "assume a perfectly
               | spherical cow" thought exercise wasn't too complicated.
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | The guy who was killed, with annual compensation of $10M,
               | is one of the richest and most powerful people in the
               | country? There are FAANG ICs making more than that.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | The shooter is from one of the richest families in
               | Maryland and is richer than the guy he shot. His cousin
               | is a state congressman.
        
               | Epa095 wrote:
               | If you are willing to shift the blame from the CEOs, why
               | stop by shifting it one level? Why not shift it all the
               | way to the top, to the voters who voted in the
               | politicians?
               | 
               | The health insurance industry is a modern example of the
               | banality of evil, and there is enough blame to go around.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | The ACA caps health insurers' profits. When you say "the
               | healthcare industry", you're confusing insurers and
               | providers, who are not allied.
               | 
               | /Doctors/ killed the public option because it would save
               | money by lowering their salaries. American healthcare is
               | expensive because of providers.
               | 
               | (Another example is that we banned opening new hospitals
               | unless nearby competing hospitals approve of it. This is
               | called "certificate of need".)
        
             | WD-42 wrote:
             | The execs of these companies aren't just hapless
             | administrators plodding along in a broken system of someone
             | else's design. They very clearly to everything they can to
             | extract as much value as they can from the situation.
        
             | happytoexplain wrote:
             | The idea that a business is _morally blameless_ to act in
             | any way as long as it A. improves profit, and B. is within
             | the law; and that everybody must limit themselves to voting
             | with their patronage and are somehow wrong to e.g. voice
             | criticism; is obviously, intuitively false.
        
             | quickthrowman wrote:
             | Who do you think gave the politicians money to vote for
             | keeping the status quo?
        
             | yunohn wrote:
             | In what universe are the politicians and healthcare
             | companies not in cahoots? Like the rest of our industries?
        
         | asdefghyk wrote:
         | RE ... that some of those customers are unhappy....
         | 
         | Articales show they had lots of unhappy customers.... Also when
         | employes get income of several million a year seems excessive.
         | The CEOS income was around $50,000 a business DAY , probably
         | more that lots people earn in a year. Its reported these
         | customers died/ went bankrupt as a result of insurance company
         | refusals . ( Ive always thought needs to be much stronger
         | government laws around documentation so people aware of what is
         | covered and what is not, could have reduced the number of
         | unhappy customers )
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | The CEO who was killed was paid about $0.20 per patient last
           | year.
           | 
           | Do you think those patients would have been better off with
           | that $0.20 still in their pocket, and a less qualified CEO
           | running the company?
        
         | viccis wrote:
         | >How would you feel if one of those unhappy customers showed up
         | at your home and shot you dead?
         | 
         | If I were the face of a company using junk AI and other
         | obstruction methods to achieve industry leading denial rates to
         | potentially life saving healthcare, all to build up my
         | company's coffers, I would feel pretty unsurprised.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | OK, but none of _my_ customers die because I said no to a liver
         | transplant.
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | Do you dream of one day working on important problems and
           | making hard decisions with no right answer?
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | Yes. I _don 't_ dream of working on ways to deny needed
             | medical coverage to pad my pockets.
             | 
             | https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/13/health/liver-transplant-
             | mom-e... has a nice illustrative example of how silly the
             | system UnitedHealthcare and others set up can get.
             | 
             | https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/nyregion/delay-deny-
             | defen...
             | 
             | > Earlier this year, a Senate committee investigated
             | Medicare Advantage plans denying nursing care to patients
             | who were recovering from falls and strokes. It concluded
             | that three major companies -- UnitedHealthcare, Humana and
             | CVS, which owns Aetna -- were intentionally denying claims
             | for this expensive care to increase profits.
             | UnitedHealthcare, the report noted, denied requests for
             | such nursing stays three times more often than it did for
             | other services. (Humana had an even higher figure, denying
             | at a rate 16 times higher.)
             | 
             | https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-
             | healthcare-i...
             | 
             | > As United reviewed McNaughton's treatment, he and his
             | family were often in the dark about what was happening or
             | their rights. Meanwhile, United employees misrepresented
             | critical findings and ignored warnings from doctors about
             | the risks of altering McNaughton's drug plan.
             | 
             | > At one point, court records show, United inaccurately
             | reported to Penn State and the family that McNaughton's
             | doctor had agreed to lower the doses of his medication.
             | Another time, a doctor paid by United concluded that
             | denying payments for McNaughton's treatment could put his
             | health at risk, but the company buried his report and did
             | not consider its findings. The insurer did, however,
             | consider a report submitted by a company doctor who rubber-
             | stamped the recommendation of a United nurse to reject
             | paying for the treatment.
        
             | anonymousab wrote:
             | There are right answers though. Certainly far more "right"
             | than what they currently do.
             | 
             | They can, in fact, have their billions of profits while not
             | putting their customers in the grave. It's just slightly
             | less profit than they currently get.
             | 
             | Squeezing the blood from the stone here is entirely a
             | choice.
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | How much profit do you think they make, exactly?
               | 
               | How much do you think they should be entitled to make?
               | 
               | If the answer is zero, why would anyone invest in a
               | company that can't make money?
               | 
               | If the answer is that healthcare should be run by the
               | government, why are you blaming the CEO instead of
               | politicians?
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Who do you think lobbies those politicians?
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | Are the politicians not accountable for the decisions
               | they make?
               | 
               | Who has a greater moral accountability to the public -
               | politicians or corporate CEOs?
        
               | patmcc wrote:
               | A lot of this data is open: https://www.kff.org/private-
               | insurance/state-indicator/averag...
               | 
               | That shows the _gross margin_ of insurance companies
               | (based on premiums vs paid claims). Note that it 's
               | negative in some states, and also that's _gross margin_ -
               | so _all_ the insurance companies ' costs need to be paid
               | out of that.
               | 
               | They are not making as much profit as you think they are.
        
             | WD-42 wrote:
             | Is optimizing denial of service to increase profits what
             | you would consider an "important problem" with no right
             | answer?
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | I think reducing healthcare costs in the US is an
               | important problem with no right answers, and this
               | sometimes involves denying care that people think they
               | need.
        
             | lawlessone wrote:
             | >with no right answer?
             | 
             | When the options are deny healthcare to someone that has
             | paid you for healthcare and give them the healthcare, it's
             | not morally grey.
        
             | happytoexplain wrote:
             | "No right answer" is a very common weasel phrase -
             | technically correct sometimes, but clearly some answers are
             | better than others.
        
           | patmcc wrote:
           | We don't have enough livers for every transplant case;
           | someone needs to say no to some of them. If you think that's
           | _necessarily_ an evil act, you need to think harder.
           | 
           | The issue I see with all this is the anger isn't because this
           | CEO denied claims that should have been accepted (that would
           | be reasonable anger), it's that they denied claims _at all_.
           | How do people expect insurance to work? An insurance company
           | that never denies claims doesn 't stay in business.
           | 
           | (And obviously, yes, I think the US healthcare system is
           | lousy. But in the system you have now, you have insurance
           | companies, and they need to operate in the real world.)
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | > We don't have enough livers for every transplant case;
             | someone needs to say no to some of them.
             | 
             | That'll be the people (UNOS) managing the transplant list,
             | which is sorted _already_ sorted by severity and chance of
             | surviving the procedure.
             | 
             | https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/13/health/liver-transplant-
             | mom-e...
             | 
             | > More than 100 doctors at three of the nation's top
             | medical centers have weighed in on her case, which is
             | complex and exceedingly rare. Their conclusion: The only
             | way to save Erika's life is to give her a new liver.
             | 
             | > After weeks of evaluation at the Cleveland Clinic in
             | December and January, Erika finally got her big break.
             | 
             | > On February 2, doctors there approved putting her on the
             | wait list for a liver transplant.
             | 
             | > But Erika hit an immediate wall. Her insurer,
             | UnitedHealthcare, denied coverage for the transplant,
             | saying it would not be a "promising treatment." She
             | appealed and was rejected again.
        
               | patmcc wrote:
               | Did you even read the article you posted?
               | 
               | 1. It's explicitly stated, including by the doctor
               | involved, that this is a "groundbreaking" (read:
               | experimental) procedure, having been performed exactly
               | twice in the US _this century_.
               | 
               | 2. The doctor even says "he can somewhat understand the
               | insurance company's initial reluctance at coverage".
               | 
               | 3. The insurance company denied it because "unproven
               | health services is not a covered benefit" - this is
               | expected, the insurance company can't just take a single
               | doctor's word that "it'll totally work, I'm super good at
               | this surgery".
               | 
               | 4. The insurance company ended up approving her claim.
               | 
               | And then, from a different article -
               | https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/portland-mom-who-
               | sur...
               | 
               | 5. UNOS actually downgraded her score on their list
               | (highlighting that, unfortunately, this was not a
               | 'promising treatment').
               | 
               | 6. She died during the liver transplant operation.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Did _you_ even read the article you posted?
               | 
               | > Erika had waited more than a year for a liver due to
               | insurance issues.
               | 
               | Yes, if you delay long enough, chances of survival go way
               | down.
               | 
               | (There's a reason "delay" was one of the three words on
               | the bullet casings, I suspect.)
        
               | patmcc wrote:
               | Yah, that's a mistake (or lie) by the article; from your
               | CNN article, she was initially put on the transplant list
               | on Feb 2, and ended up approved by mid-May (it's after
               | May 2, but before Mother's Day, on May 13).
               | 
               | She was delayed by "insurance issues" by _at most_ 3
               | months.
               | 
               | She waited more than a year for a liver because she
               | wasn't a good candidate for a liver transplant.
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | This is such a great representative example in this
               | debate.
        
         | anonymousab wrote:
         | The countless needlessly dead "customers" aren't really happy
         | or unhappy anymore. They're dead.
         | 
         | Wanting to not be dead or miserable in exchange for a company
         | fulfilling their obligations and maybe having billions in
         | profit instead of billions in profit +1 is far from
         | 'unreasonable'.
         | 
         | This CEO was not some faceless cog with no agency. He was
         | someone with real power and control that willingly made
         | decisions that actively severely and often fatally harmed his
         | customers.
        
         | johnnyanmac wrote:
         | No one here is cheering this person on (as of this posting). Or
         | at least those comments were removed in record time.
         | 
         | >If your reaction is "Oh, but I'm not the CEO!" you're deluding
         | yourself (at best).
         | 
         | I don't have much of an IRL online presence, so it'd be a
         | helluva a lot harder to plan a retaliation against me than a
         | public figure.
         | 
         | But yes, I live in downtown L.A. It would not be hard at all
         | for me to piss the wrong person off, or simply be in the wrong
         | place at the wrong time.
        
         | hilux wrote:
         | > Have you ever decided that some of those unhappy customers
         | were unreasonable, or even totally wrong, given all the facts?
         | 
         | Yes. Happens all the time.
         | 
         | AND ... you seem to be implying that all companies are
         | [ethically, morally, practically] the same.
         | 
         | Without taking a position on the shooting, I will tell you
         | this: all companies are not the same. And this particular
         | company seems to be one of the worst, and that too in an arena
         | that directly impacts people's literal lives.
        
         | LAC-Tech wrote:
         | I've never been CEO of a company that directly profited off of
         | human misery.
        
         | lawlessone wrote:
         | >have you ever worked for a company that had customers?
         | 
         | Yeah nothing I worked for bankrupted people because they used
         | an out of network surgeon though.
         | 
         | Me refusing to accept a return on some golf shoes without a
         | receipt is not morally equivalent.
         | 
         | I feel safe in that regard.
        
         | gamblor956 wrote:
         | If I was the CEO of a company and I made repeated conscious
         | choices to deliberately deny people a life-saving service they
         | paid for so I could get a slightly higher obscenely large
         | bonus, I'd expect people to try and extract revenge.
         | 
         | UHC deliberately denied coverage to millions of people, at
         | least hundreds of whom died as a result. Right now experts are
         | saying that 7 out of 10 juries wouldn't vote to convict Luigi,
         | and based on conversations I've had with people across the
         | political spectrum I'd say the only jury that would convict
         | Luigi is one made up entirely of healthcare executives.
         | 
         | I'm just surprised that this didn't happen sooner.
        
           | naveen99 wrote:
           | I am skeptical that unh is denying more than other insurers.
           | Since half their business is physician practices, they
           | actually make more money treating the patients. Also they
           | have more physicians on staff making decisions than
           | competition, and I would rather doctors are more involved in
           | those decisions than mba's. in fact they are probably too
           | effective, and the competition is running scared looking for
           | antitrust protection.
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/05/data/unitedhealthcar
             | e...
             | 
             | > The company dismissed about one in every three claims in
             | 2023 -- the most of any major insurer. That's twice the
             | industry average of 16 percent, according to data from
             | ValuePenguin, a consumer research site owned by LendingTree
             | that specializes in insurance. The group's analysis is
             | based on in-network claims data from the Centers for
             | Medicare & Medicaid Services.
        
             | giraffe_lady wrote:
             | Check out the discovery on this barely-related lawsuit that
             | revealed that they had specifically adopted a policy of
             | denying covered treatment to addicts because they
             | determined that that group was particularly unlikely to
             | follow through with an appeal.
             | 
             | https://www.welcometohellworld.com/this-is-the-most-
             | ghoulish...
             | 
             | The article is biased, as you should also be in the face of
             | evil, but you can follow the links through and eventually
             | get to the materials as presented in court if you're
             | motivated.
        
         | potsandpans wrote:
         | What level of cognitive dissonance is required to refer to
         | patients denied critical care as "unhappy customers"?
         | 
         | To argue in good faith, I have to assume that you believe what
         | you've written. How should one interpret it? Be explicit.
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | Do you think that a healthcare system should always give
           | every patient the treatment they personally think they need?
           | 
           | Do you think a healthcare system should always
           | unquestioningly give every patient any treatment that any
           | doctor says they need?
           | 
           | Do you think it is possible for doctors to be wrong?
           | 
           | Do you think a healthcare system should be designed to try to
           | avoid unnecessary spending?
           | 
           | Do you think that, in such a system, a patient might be
           | denied a treatment that they think they need, or even a
           | treatment a doctor says they need, and this might still be
           | the right conclusion?
           | 
           | Do you think that patient might be unhappy about the system
           | as a result?
        
             | unsui wrote:
             | Do you think that having a default of "Delay, Deny, Defend"
             | is a good-faith approach to healthcare?
             | 
             | Cuz sure seems like you're on the side of DDD by default.
        
         | jjulius wrote:
         | >... some of those customers are unhappy...
         | 
         | That's a _tremendously_ generous way of saying,  "Many of their
         | customers are dead because the company opted for profit over
         | treatment".
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | UHCs profit margins are 6%. What do you think is a reasonable
           | profit margin for a for-profit insurance company?
           | 
           | How many people are dead because you didn't personally
           | volunteer all of your disposable income to pay for their
           | medical care?
           | 
           | Why are you more entitled to your earnings than UHC?
        
         | syndicatedjelly wrote:
         | What is the point of this hypothetical?
        
         | Traubenfuchs wrote:
         | The company that did the worst thing I ever worked for did...
         | drum roll... cold calls to random people trying to sell them
         | beds, mattresses, pillows and blankets.
         | 
         | So I do feel morally in the clear to cheer over the death of
         | someone whose bonus hinged on him increasing the suffering and
         | reducing the life span of completely random, innocent people,
         | that, as a group, only had in common ,,not being rich".
        
         | quickthrowman wrote:
         | None of my customers or their loved one's have ever died as a
         | result of my decisions.
        
         | happytoexplain wrote:
         | >unhappy customers
         | 
         | This is hideous.
        
         | patmcc wrote:
         | Maybe a bunch of these folks should get together and start a
         | non-profit health insurance company.
         | 
         | After all, given there's so much profit to be had in it, surely
         | they could operate at break-even, not pay crazy executive
         | salaries, approve every claim, and be beloved by all.
        
       | lazyeye wrote:
       | Programming language inventor or serial killer?
       | 
       | https://vole.wtf/coder-serial-killer-quiz/
        
       | BadHumans wrote:
       | The funniest thing about the whole thing to me is that we have
       | had privacy taken away or even voluntarily given it up to the
       | police state in the name of security and then this guy randomly
       | walks up and offs a member of the 1% and the only reason he got
       | caught was because the feds got lucky.
        
         | zingababba wrote:
         | No, because he was sloppy and lowered his mask...
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | It still came down to an old guy recognizing him in a
           | McDonalds.
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | Which seems likely to have been due to said maskless photo.
        
               | BadHumans wrote:
               | He has a written manifesto in his pocket and was out
               | eating McDonalds. It's not like he trying hard to hide
        
       | crawfordcomeaux wrote:
       | With programmers, hackers, computer scientists, systems
       | designers/engineers carrying some of the most privileged
       | skillsets needed for designing and implementing replacements to
       | systems of oppression (and disruptions to said systems), I've
       | been wondering where the ones working to do this can be found.
       | 
       | I learned in Computer Ethics 101 about how the history of the
       | development of radiological machines led to the realization that
       | the ethical path to creating systems for our lives involves
       | stopping using them when they accidentally/repeatedly harm.
       | 
       | I'm looking for different paths than murder to accomplish this.
       | Anyone else want to get together around these ideas to start
       | designing?
        
         | jckahn wrote:
         | This is the main reason I built https://chitchatter.im/. I hope
         | to see it be used as a tool to safely organize around building
         | a better world.
        
       | breadwinner wrote:
       | He was carrying all of the evidence with him, including the fake
       | ID he used at the hostel, the gun & suppressor, mask, and even a
       | handwritten manifesto that points to his motivation. It seems he
       | wanted to be found.
        
         | qzw wrote:
         | Exactly my thoughts as well. Every piece of evidence law
         | enforcement has was basically intentionally provided by him. If
         | he just stuffed his trash in one of his 7 pockets, or wore a
         | pair of sunglasses, or didn't actually stare straight at the
         | camera in the taxi like he was getting his school picture
         | taken? I mean pretty much the only thing he failed to do was
         | leave his business card at the crime scene.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | [dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42369465
        
       | readyplayernull wrote:
       | > Mr Mangione previously worked as a programming intern for
       | Fixarixis, a video game developer.
       | 
       | What? Do they mean Firaxis? Devs of some Civilization and X-Com
       | versions?
        
         | sneed_chucker wrote:
         | Yeah, there are screenshots of his LinkedIn floating around
         | that show he apparently did Bugfixes on CIV 6. (The profile has
         | since been scrubbed of course)
        
           | yobananaboy wrote:
           | It's not scrubbed, still here:
           | https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigi-mangione/
        
             | readyplayernull wrote:
             | Interesting. The relation with Civ gives a kind of grand
             | scheme. Let's see what his dead man account brings up:
             | 
             | https://youtube.com/@PepMangione
        
       | Miner49er wrote:
       | Might be fake, but looks like he may have had a dead man's switch
       | upload a YouTube video: https://youtu.be/bdhs9g3Wwg0
        
         | breadwinner wrote:
         | It ends with "All is scheduled, be patient". Presumably it
         | means more videos are coming, explaining his motivation.
        
         | chaospossblity wrote:
         | look at his youtube profile pic
        
       | Bjorkbat wrote:
       | I'm weirdly not too surprised due to this belief I have that
       | software developers would make effective criminals. A lot of this
       | boils down to a belief I have that not getting caught in the
       | first place is easy. Murders have something like a 50% solve rate
       | and you can decrease your chances of getting caught with a little
       | knowledge on how to evade common forensic techniques along with
       | some planning. Those who get caught doing one crime or another
       | either were dumb to begin or eventually got lazy and made a dumb
       | mistake in hindsight.
       | 
       | Besides that though, the ethos that we have lends itself well to
       | acquiring advanced knowledge in more-or-less all domains, crime
       | and forensics included.
        
         | tzs wrote:
         | Careful. That solve rate is overall. When planning your life in
         | crime you probably want to use the solve rate for the
         | particular type of people you plan to murder.
         | 
         | The solve rate for murders of white people is generally in the
         | 80+% range, which is probably what you'd want to use if going
         | after CEOs.
        
         | astrange wrote:
         | More importantly, engineers are for some reason especially
         | likely to be terrorists.
         | 
         | https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29836/1/Why_are_there_so_many_Engi...
         | 
         | I think it's related to old physicist brain where you decide
         | you know everything about everyone else's field.
         | 
         | https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21
        
         | readthenotes1 wrote:
         | "due to this belief I have that software developers would make
         | effective criminals. A lot of this boils down to a belief I
         | have that not getting caught in the first place is easy."
         | 
         | Ummm.... You understand that the software developer was just
         | caught by a McDonald's cashier?
        
       | imglorp wrote:
       | His Goodreads comment on Ted Kacyzinski's book (better known for
       | other work). https://i.redd.it/j9n3oplojv5e1.jpeg
        
       | JSDevOps wrote:
       | Let me get this straight:
       | 
       | The suspected killer is Luigi Mangione--an Ivy League-educated
       | computer science graduate, voracious reader, and active GitHub
       | contributor. He has an IQ over 130 but makes a baffling series of
       | decisions.
       | 
       | First, he takes off his mask at a Starbucks to flirt with an
       | employee. Then, an hour later, he calmly murders the CEO of a
       | major healthcare company and rides away on a bike.
       | 
       | A week later, he shows up at a McDonald's carrying the murder
       | weapon, the fake ID he used to check into a hotel, and a written
       | manifesto railing against the American healthcare system. While
       | sitting there, the cashier somehow identifies him.
       | 
       | Instead of leaving, he sits at a table working on his laptop,
       | with the ghost gun and suppressor he built himself, waiting until
       | the police arrive and arrest him.
       | 
       | Got it.
        
         | Miner49er wrote:
         | He actually flirted with an employee at the hostel he stayed
         | at, probably days before the murder. But yeah, the rest seems
         | about right.
        
         | roncesvalles wrote:
         | Since when did making small talk become "flirting"?
        
           | delecti wrote:
           | As I've heard it, it was characterized as flirting by the
           | employee.
        
         | blast wrote:
         | Some criminals want to get caught.
        
         | bawolff wrote:
         | Sometimes people do crime to be famous, this pattern would fit
         | that.
        
         | astrange wrote:
         | Yes, he's not acting rationally because he's having a mental
         | health crisis.
         | 
         | If you look at his Twitter account, he disappeared a few months
         | ago and all the replies were friends asking where he went.
         | 
         | (Also, he's a tpot poster, which is a kind of tech bro that
         | likes tweeting about how great it is to do psychedelic drugs.
         | This is bad for your mental health!)
        
         | cariaso wrote:
         | Nit
         | 
         | https://github.com/lnmangione
         | 
         | ...."Active" GitHub?
        
         | wslh wrote:
         | Unabomber was more complex to track [1]. I don't want to argue
         | that he had a higher IQ since someone with a normal IQ could
         | make it perfectly fine.
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski
        
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