Medical Insurance Violence?

The recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson raises several Big Questions.

Under his leadership, UnitedHealthcare’s profits increased from $12 billion in 2021 to $16 billion in 2023. At the time of his death, the company was the largest health insurer in the United States.

One way their profits soared? Denial of payment for lack of “prior authorization.” Before he became CEO in 2021 the denial rate was 9%. By 2022 it was 23%.

Here are some interesting quotes from a New York Times opinion piece by Zeynep Tufekci. “I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.”

“The vast inequities of the [late 19^th century Gilded Age] fueled political movements that targeted corporate titans, politicians, judges and others for violence.” “The turbulence and violence of the Gilded Age eventually gave way to comprehensive social reform.”

“The concentration of extreme wealth in the United States has recently surpassed that of the Gilded Age. And the will among politicians to push for broad public solutions appears to have all but vanished.”

There has been an outpouring of human stories of suffering and death as a result of the denials of payment by UnitedHealthcare under Thompson. There have also already been some consequences. In the immediate wake of Thompson’s murder, Blue Cross Blue Shield canceled a plan to stop covering the cost of anesthesia for longer surgeries.

President Kennedy once famously said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Emergency physician Dr. Helen Ouyang described a case in another New York Times piece. She faced a patient in a “dire state” in the emergency room. “After a pause, he beckoned me closer. His forehead furrowed with concern. I thought he would ask if he was going to be OK or if he needed surgery – questions I’m comfortable fielding. But instead he asked, ‘Will my insurance cover my stay?’” It did not end well.

When I told my wife about the glee over the killing of Thompson, she said many of those celebrating probably voted for Trump. And that is the problem. It is good to see the anger and outrage over the horrors, indignities, injustice and pure violence of the U.S. healthcare non-system. No other industrialized country allows its people to die for lack of medical treatment.

But the anger means nothing if it is not directed to political change. When Medicare was proposed in the 1960s, Reagan famously recorded a message for the American Medical Association warning that Medicare would lead to the U.S. becoming like the Soviet Union. As with most Reagan statements, it was full of completely made-up stories that never happened.

The American Medical Association and the Republican Party have opposed almost every attempt to bring universal healthcare to the American people. Far too many healthcare providers place their personal profits ahead of their patients.

Do I applaud the murder of Thompson? That is the wrong question. Physicians for a National Health Program recently estimated that 44,789 Americans of working age die each year because they lack health insurance. Every one of those people had a life. They had family, friends and were part of their community. But they die anonymously instead of on a security camera video as Thompson died. Are they any less dead? Is their death any less violent?

How will this change? When the American people support organizations and candidates who call for universal health care.

Watch Michael Moore’s 2007 film Sicko if you haven’t yet. It shows the horrors of the U.S. healthcare non-system. In every case, the patient had insurance. Former Cigna Vice President Wendell Potter resigned in 2008 shortly after the death of Nataline Sarkisyan. Sarkisyan died after repeatedly being refused a liver transplant by Cigna. Potter is now an outspoken advocate for true universal healthcare in the U.S.

Insurance companies deny care while wasting billions in bureaucracy and profits that could go for care. Medicare for All or socialized medicine would eliminate this useless industry. Saving lives and money. Other countries have done this. Why can’t we?

Can we finally put an end to medical insurance violence?