Comments by "JLH" (@Kyarrix) on "The Outrageous Adoration for Luigi Mangione | FP LIVE" video.
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I'm an attorney, I was an administrative law judge in New York state. I care very much about fairness and ethics. I was badly abused as a child resulting in the need for 17 surgeries. I became an attorney because I care about fairness, I wanted to see more justice in the world.
I have thought a lot about this case. I understand why people are viewing him in heroic terms. Our healthcare system is awful. The United States spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country and we come in 14th or 15th in terms of outcome. Why? Because most of the money doesn't go to actual healthcare, it goes into the pockets of the insurance companies.
The insurance company Brian Thompson represented routinely declines a third of all claims resulting in tremendous hardship for people. It is understandable that anger at the system would reach the point where violence seemed the only way forward.
If we can make changes within the system then violence should never happen. Vigilante violence can't happen in a sane and reasonable society. The question we have to ask ourselves is have we reached the point where our society is no longer sane and reasonable?
Insurance companies engage in predatory practices. That isn't debatable. It is fact. What do we do then? If we say that violence is always wrong but at the same time change cannot be made within the system because those in power will not give up that power, what is left?
I don't know the answer to that question. I believe that vigilante justice is wrong but I do not know what the answer is. I hope we don't have to reach the point of increasing violence but if there isn't significant change and soon, I'm afraid that's where we're going.
For the record, the justifications cited by Mr Moynihan are invalid. Our healthcare is not the most expensive in the world because we live in a wealthy nation. It is the most expensive because most of the money goes to the insurance companies, not to actual care. I understand where he's coming from but he is giving the insurance companies far too much leeway, according them the benefit of the doubt when they have proven repeatedly that their interest is solely profit. He also engaged in a couple of strawman arguments that I would have preferred he refrained from. I respect his position but in this instance, he is wrong.
Our healthcare system is a for-profit model with incentives built in to it, the more drugs and procedures done, the more money made. Doctors are not rewarded for teaching prevention, they are penalized for it and eventually fired, if not worse. I'm aware of several doctors who were brought before disciplinary committees for the sin of teaching their patients prevention rather than prescribing medications or performing procedures.
There is so much disease in the United States that is the result of lifestyle, we've been taught to depend on pills and procedures. Ozempic is a good example. An obscene amount of money is being made from that drug and doctors are strongly encouraged to recommend and prescribe it rather than teaching their patients how to eat healthily.
There is so much wrong with our system that Mr Moynihan is ignoring or glossing over. I don't think violence is the answer but neither is excusing the very real abuses that occur at a tremendous cost in unnecessary suffering.
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@LebanonBologna40 everything is pill and procedure-based. Drug manufacturers should never have been allowed to advertise on TV, they are because it's a profit-based system. Think about someone like Dr Shawn Baker, he is a proponent of the carnivore diet (which is evidence-based, some organic seasonal fruits and vegetables are fine in moderation but we evolved - or developed, your choice - on a diet of protein and fat. That's what our brains need). He started to educate patients while working as a orthopedic surgeon. They brought him up on charges because he wasn't doing as many joint replacements, when he would help people adjust their diet they would feel better and they wouldn't need the surgery. His partners didn't like that. He is one of many who have had similar experiences.
Processed food isn't food, if it has a paragraph of ingredients most of which are not found in your kitchen, you shouldn't be eating it. But processed food and fast food exist in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. They sell us food that is unhealthy for us, we get sick, many get fat, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the pharmaceutical industry stands by to provide expensive drugs that won't cure the problem but merely ameliorate some of the symptoms.
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