The Adjuster

I’m obsessed. With several things – the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan; the assassin’s escape, particularly how he’s proven the NYPD to be rather inept despite over $5B in funding and cameras all over the city; the response of social media across the political spectrum (which is extremely rare, as we know!).

One wag nicknamed the shooter “The Adjuster,” which is particularly brilliant considering how much Americans hate the insurance claims adjuster, who frequently reduces awards to consumers. The writing on the bullet casings also points to extreme hatred for the way insurance companies – health insurance particularly, but this also holds true for home insurance and car insurance – have no interest in actually covering the effects of illness or damage, coverage that each and every one of us pays into one way or another.

This is grift similar to what Republicans constantly threaten us with regard to Social Security and other “entitlements” that we pay into, via tax or FICA or other premiums. It’s our money that they’re taking, and not paying back out when the need for it arises. It’s outright robbery. And the CEOs and shareholders are continually enriched.

Those of us who have IRAs or 401Ks are some of these shareholders. So the grift is a double-bind, and one that makes us all complicit, whether we want to be or not. Frequently we don’t even have real insight as to how that percentage of our salaries is being invested, because those mutual funds invest in other mutual funds, and it’s anonymized funds all the way down. We’re paying twice – via investment and via insurance premiums – to have coverage denied, delayed…and that denial and delay so energetically defended.

So it’s no surprise that an assassination in broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan is being cheered on by everyday people. It’s no surprise that memes about him are fluorishing at an exponential rate. It’s no surprise that this feeling of schadenfreude transcends political loyalties – every American has been screwed over by the claims adjuster, the claims denier, the claims delayer – regardless of whether they are Democrat or Republican. In fact, Republicans who live in states that refused the ACA are suffering the most.

There are aspects of this which are genuinely funny: the fanfic, the police scrambling in the face of a meticulously planned out enterprise (it’s Day 4 as of this writing, and this so-called manhunt has led to zero results). There are Robin Hood references, though no money has changed hands.

In fact, the money reliably grifts up from the poor and middle-class to what are called Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. They’re literally vacuuming up the spare change in our couch cushions – by obfuscating our investments, by denying the claims that we pay into, by wearing us down with legal fees and the exhaustion of administration and automated phone systems that won’t allow you to talk to an individual.

So many deaths are attributable to this sapping of energy, an attrition and demoralization and conviction that our lives don’t matter. We’ve all been through it, even those of us who have “good” insurance. Years ago, I was sued by the company that gave me physical therapy for unpaid bills – they hired a process server to throw documents into the bushes in front of my house. I had paid the bills, and when I had a moment to dig through my files and print them out and fax them, the suit was magically vanished. They count on wearing you down – when we’re already worn down by overwork, ever-lowering wages, ever-climbing prices, ever-denying claims.

That desperation is literally enough to make some people murderous. And it’s enough to make apparent that a lot of people will ensure this man is protected and not caught. Especially when a hate crime was committed just a day later, and there’s been no similar uproar, nor bounties offered for the offenders, nor all-hands-on-deck public briefings.

It’s quite clear Who Counts. The media, bought up by billionaires themselves, is absolutely no help. This version of the Washington Post would never have allowed the environment for Woodward and Bernstein to have taken down a president. But this version of the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos.

There’s murder, and there’s murder. The murder of one person – a powerful person – is obviously bad. As is the murder of a migrant teen. As is the murder of thousands upon thousands of people who were denied the care they needed to remain alive. If one man represents those thousands of murdered, and he is murdered himself, who are we not to feel some sort of balance has been restored?