New York gets anesthesia coverage back after a CEO's murder
I'm not saying the Timothée Chalamet lookalike who shot a health insurance CEO helped make this happen, but I'm not not saying that.
I want to talk about two news developments today that may or may not be causally related.
First, a man who resembles Timothée Chalamet (irrelevant) is suspected of assassinating Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, at the Hilton Midtown on Wednesday morning. He appeared to be in fine spirits the morning of the shooting, per the security footage:
The suspect allegedly hid and waited at the hotel, the site of UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference, before shooting Thompson multiple times in the back. He then fled on an E-bike and remains at large. The NYPD has put a $10K bounty on his head.
The murder was clearly premeditated and intended to send a political message about the greed of insurance companies. Police found bullets and bullet casings with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on them, which appears to be a reference to the 2010 book Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he had been receiving threats before the shooting. "There had been some threats," she said. "Basically, I don't know, a lack of coverage? I don't know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him."
Speaking of a lack of coverage, a different health insurer appears to be suddenly regretting an unhinged, shamelessly greedy policy announcement it made last week. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield put out a press release announcing that it would stop covering anesthesia for the full duration of surgeries that last longer than a specific amount of time in New York, Connecticut, and Missouri. “Claims submitted with reported time above the established number of minutes will be denied,” they wrote.
A group of anesthesiologists sounded the alarm on the policy change, which probably otherwise would have gone unnoticed until some poor man went bankrupt because his heart surgery took three minutes too long. After a massive backlash—plus the timely front-page murder of a health insurance CEO in the middle of Manhattan—the company walked back the policy in New York and Connecticut. NY Gov. Kathy Hochul is now trying to take credit for the policy change here, claiming she personally pushed the company to reverse course, but I’m not buying that that woman has ever done one useful thing for this state in her life.
No, it had to be the murder.
And by the way, New Yorkers, the suspect who may or may not have gotten your anesthesia back is probably swiping on the apps in your neighborhood right now, not that anyone would be interested in an anarchist with great bone structure who murders health insurance CEOs that rob people. But if you see him on the street, no you didn’t.
In other news…
Hawk Tuah girl scammed crypto bros out of millions of dollars with her new “meme coin,” whatever that is, and now they’re crying about losing their life savings to the blonde girl who gave one news interview about blowjobs
Donald Trump is reportedly not even working the phones to help out Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, whose Senate confirmation is in trouble after a deluge of horrible stories (paying off his rape accuser, his own mom calling him an abuser of women, screaming “Kill all Muslims” in public on a drunken night out, being drunk at work and basically at all times, promising to stop drinking if they give him the Department of Defense, etc.) I believe we are experiencing the death rattle of the Hegseth nomination, which would mean that two of Trump’s rapey cabinet picks dropped out before the confirmation process even started. Embarrassing!