Sympathy For The Slain UnitedHealthcare CEO

Sympathy For The Slain Health Insurance CEO

In a recent post ("Is All Fair in Love and War? Notes on the UnitedHealth CEO Slaying"), our fellow contributor Armageddon Prose wrote that he struggled to feel sympathy for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan last week. 

Here are several reasons why you should feel sympathy for him. 

You Are Not Insane

The same is likely not true of Thompson's alleged assassin, Luigi Mangione, who experimented with drugs known to be psychologically damaging, and evinced other evidence of mental illness, such as cutting off his friends and family six months ago. 

You Are Not A Fool 

You didn't fall for the fake Mangione manifesto, the one about his poor mother being unable to get the medical treatment she needed (his family is extremely wealthy, which made this story implausible to begin with). 

You also know that health insurance companies aren't the main reason American healthcare is expensive. 

UnitedHealth Group (UNH), for example, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, has a profit margin of 3.63%. 

You know that American healthcare is expensive for several reasons: 

• It's the best in the world in most specialties. Patients come from all over the world to go to first rate American hospitals such as The Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and The Mayo Clinic. 
• Our physicians and allied health professionals are very well paid (sometimes overpaid, as Noah Smith noted above. 
• Obamacare restricted cost-saving insurance policies such as catastrophic care policies, and mandated most health insurance policies cover things like mental healthcare and drug rehab. 
• There are tens of millions of illegal aliens and their family members free-riding on our healthcare system. 

You--unlike Luigi Mangione--know that Americans' life expectancy is lower than that of other countries for reasons that have nothing to do with healthcare. 

For starters, there are racial and ethnic differences in life expectancy, and lifestyle plays a role too. For example, Chinese-American women, using the same healthcare system as the rest of us, have a life expectancy of 93 years. 

You Are Not A Resentful Leftist 

You don't hate Midwesterners who came from modest beginnings and worked hard to be successful. 

You are, again, not a resentful leftist.

You know which man in the news this week deserves your respect. 

And Since You're Not A Resentful Leftist 

You appreciate people who offer you useful products and services in our market economy. Here, we will do just that. As The Market Ear reported last week ("A Legend Expects A Crash In NVDA"), a longtime Nvidia (NVDA) observer expects a crash in the stock:

A PhD in NVDA crashes

"Over the past 25 years, I’ve witnessed five NVDA stock collapses of at least 55% and up to 90% and I’ve participated (via put options) in most of them. I expect a sixth relatively soon. As most know, I’ve been trading in and out of NVDA longer - term puts in recent months. However, prior to their latest report. I put the position back on in bigger size" (Fred Hickey)

The AI overbuilding bender

"Proving that human psychology never changes, here we are 24 years later and the tech industry is on another one of its overbuilding benders, even though it’s clear (to me) the result will (inevitably) be a capacity glut and collapse. Instead of the limitless computing capacity needs of the Internet, this time it’s the artificial intelligence (AI) story driving the capacity build out. This is a more dire situation than the great fiber-optic capacity overbuilds"

(Fred Hickey)

Since then, NVDA shares are own about 7%. In the event Hickey is right about them having further to fall, here are a couple of ways you can hedge your NVDA shares, one with optimal puts, and other with an optimal collar that effectively pays you to hedge: 

@dpinsen

Hedging Nvidia $NVDA

♬ Twilight Galaxy - Metric

We used the Portfolio Armor iPhone app to pull up the hedges in that TikTok clip last week. You would obviously want to scan for the current best hedges. Our hedging app is designed to find you the cheapest puts (and collars) to give you the precise level of protection you want. You can download by aiming your iPhone camera at the QR code below (or by tapping here if you are reading this on your iPhone). 

And if you would like a heads up next time we place an aggressive trade, like our recent winner on QIFU Technologies,

1. Calls on QIFU Technologies ( QFIN 2.17%↑). Bought at $2.15 on 10/1/2024; sold (half) at $6.45 on 12/9/2024. Profit: 200%.

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