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“Employer of Brian Thompson” is such a weird turn of phrase. while factually correct, it somehow manages to leave out that this particular employee also ran the show.
Well, yes and no. BT ran a subdivision of the giant megacorp, called UnitedHealth Care. Andrew Witty (I think, I’m not wasting energy looking his name up to make sure I spelled it correctly) is the CEO of that larger, even worse corp, called UnitedHealth Group. And he makes the real murderbux.
That’s one of the reasons why corporations structure themselves vertically like you just described: they hope to dilute responsibility and compartmentalize legal impacts.
Brian Thompson and Andrew Witty didn’t run their bits of the company in total separation: they talked to each other. They are equally guilty, the structure of the company doesn’t split the blame in two parts. In fact, you could easily argue that they probably conspired to achieve the same outcome, which makes it even worse.
Yes, I’m with you on all of that, I just want to point out the last part - the “makes it even worse” part - needs to be zoomed in on in full detail here to make sure the proper amount of blame (a fuckload) gets spread among the proper targets (several). AW has his hands in running not only the insurance and managed care side of things, which he and BT probably very well did collaborate like you described, but he also had his hands in running Optum, which according to the UHG wiki was involved these things:
It is organized into three businesses:
- OptumHealth – provides primary and secondary care.[74][75]
- OptumInsight – provides data analytics, technology, and operations services.[74]
- OptumRX – provides pharmacy services.[74] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedHealth_Group#Organizational_structure
So I really feel like highlighting this Andrew Witty guy as being extra-Brian Thompson is something that should be highlighted. AW was playing all sides of the healthcare system to maximize profits. Insurance, sure, but also they were working it from the angles of also owning the doctors in primary and secondary care, plus pharmacy services, plus an entire data farm operation that was most definitely not meant to make sure customers get maximum access to healthcare. He’s just an extra-super-mega fuckstick, beyond what I feel like I can put into words, you know?
edit: also, there are CEOs for all the other subsidiaries, naturally, but the point really is that the folks at the various Optum businesses and the folks at the various UHC businesses all had different focuses in how they fucked people, whereas Andrew Witty was the head of the company that had the unified vision on how to utilize both divisions to murder more people that either could have done independently
If they had taken the money directly from the patients pockets, they would be in jail for between 7-20 years depending on the total amount they overcharged. Cancer drugs are crazy expensive in general so it could easily be a class 1 felony.
Oh but just have ‘an algorithm’ do the overcharging and suddenly it’s just a wittle oopsie. Yeah we fucking stole money from vulnerable people grappling with, and trying to fight cancer. And yeah, those fraudulently inflated bills probably caused many people to suffer massive depression and/or forgo live saving treatment. But you have to understand, Brian for an extra free million for himself, and shareholders saw a 1% increase in short term valuation.
The supreme Court is the next big item after Trump faces the inevitable. Many of them fucking consider corporations legally the same as a person except for when it comes to any type of punishment or negative consequence.
These traitors are the antithesis of the American people and it’s time for them to water the tree of freedom as penance.
The supreme Court is the next big item after Trump faces the inevitable. Many of them fucking consider corporations legally the same as a person except for when it comes to any type of punishment or negative consequence.
The corporate personhood doctrine is 200 years old. It’s nothing new. It’s disgusting, it’s dysfunctional, but it’s as American as it gets.
The reason why corporate persons can’t be punished is because they don’t physically exist and therefore can’t go to the slammer or fry on an electric chair. The only punishment you can apply to a corporate person is a fine, and that’s a very poor punishment because the one thing corporations do exceedingly well is managing losses and profits, and a fine is nothing other than a negative entry in the ledger. If it’s small enough and the crime drove profits up, the corporate person will automatically reoffend, simply by plain business logic. That’s the nature of the beast.
As for the supreme court, if you think for a second this corrupt MAGA outfit will set about to tackle such an old and well-established business institution, I have a bridge to sell you.
LITERALLY the first words of the United States Code:
§1. Words denoting number, gender, and so forth
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise-
words importing the singular include and apply to several persons, parties, or things;
words importing the plural include the singular;
words importing the masculine gender include the feminine as well;
words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present;
the words “insane” and “insane person” shall include every idiot, insane person, and person non compos mentis;
the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;
[emphasis mine]
The Supreme Court was right, the law is wrong. Undo this shit.
“We’ve always done it that way” is not a great reason to keep doing something wrong, though.
If it doesn’t breathe, eat, talk, and feel, it’s not a person. Calling it one doesn’t make it true.
To be clear this isn’t aimed at you, I’m pretty sure you’re not 200 years old and didn’t come up with the original idea.
The legal notion of corporate “personhood” is in the very first words of US law:
the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;
Congress can choose to break this.
