A few weeks ago, while visiting my mother, who was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder last summer, I developed the worst sore throat I’ve had since childhood. The pain was so intense I could hardly eat, drink, or sleep. Even sipping ice water was agonizing. Multiple times a night I crept downstairs for a popsicle to numb it enough that I could get maybe an hour or two of rest before the pain woke me up again.
My symptoms didn’t improve within a couple days, so I scheduled a telehealth appointment. After confirming it wasn’t COVID, the doctor prescribed ipratropium bromide nasal solution and phenol. When I went to pick up the meds less than an hour later, the pharmacy informed me that my insurance had approved the ipratropium bromide nasal solution and denied the phenol, more commonly known as Chloraseptic.
Having recently dealt with much more serious insurance coverage issues associated with my mother’s care—which included three 911 calls, an ambulance ride, nearly three weeks in the hospital during which she endured test after test after test before being diagnosed with tumefactive multiple sclerosis, and weekslong stays in two inpatient rehabilitation facilities—my insurer refusing to pay its share for an inexpensive over-the-counter medicine hardly registered. I shrugged, paid for the meds, and went on my way.
My insurance company denying my claim for one measly bottle of Chloraseptic came back to mind as I contemplated the alleged actions of Luigi Mangione, who police say fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4. It’s utterly insignificant compared to the health insurance horror stories circulating in the wake of Thompson’s death. But it is part and parcel of how health insurance companies operate. I had symptoms hindering basic life functions, a physician prescribed medication to alleviate those symptoms, and within a matter of minutes my insurance company refused to cover it. (Note: My provider is not UnitedHealthcare.)
Thompson’s slaying has unleashed the wrath of millions of Americans who, like me, have grappled with the bureaucratic Goliath that is the health insurance industry and lost. In our increasingly polarized nation, it’s a rare event that’s uniting people across the political spectrum.
Bridging red and blue subreddits
Hatred for Thompson, UnitedHealthcare, and health insurance companies is pouring from every corner of the internet.
The very day Thompson was killed, people took to a thread on the Ask Conservatives subreddit to blast him as an “utterly detestable human being,” accuse him of running the company “in a dishonest way,” and point out that United denies care more than any other in the industry.
“What they do is not technically murder. I would rate it as worse than murder,” wrote the redditor who noted that United denies care at twice the industry average.
Meanwhile, the same points were being made on the left-wing Antiwork subreddit. One commenter said their stool test kit came with a claim denial appeal letter to send to United, which they took as evidence that the lab had received so many denials from the company that it had decided it was easier to simply include one with every kit.
Thompson’s body wasn’t even cool before people started piling on jokes about United refusing to cover the ambulance ride to the morgue and jesting that he’d reached his lifetime max for prayers.
An anonymous user on 4chan, which is popular among the far-right, wrote of the killing, “Hating morally bankrupt elitist scumbags shouldn’t have any political affiliation.”
On his podcast, comedian Bill Burr accused the media of ignoring the overwhelming lack of empathy in the public’s response to Thompson’s slaying. Burr, who appeals widely to conservatives but holds liberal views on some issues, ranted that insurance companies take our money every month only to deny us care when we need it. CEOs, he said, are selfish, greedy, cowards (he put it a bit more crudely), mass murderers, and said he loves that executives of healthcare companies are so terrified over Thompson’s killing that their companies are wiping their information off their websites.
To those defending Thompson as an innocent victim of senseless violence, Burr said, “OK but what was his job? What did he do? What was the result of it?”
Former state Sen. Nina Turner (D-Ohio) made a more coded point on Facebook days after Thompson’s death, noting that nearly 70,000 Americans die every year due to lack of healthcare and that medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the country.
Thompson admittedly does have his defenders. Many have expressed sympathy for his family. A common response to the slaying is that killing people isn’t how we solve grievances in a civilized society (unless you’re the state, of course).
The most passionate reactions aren’t from the mourners, however, they’re from people who loathe Thompson and everything they think he represents about healthcare in America.
How do people feel about Luigi Mangione?
While Thompson, the victim, is being reviled, Mangione, the alleged killer, is the toast of the town. Mangione plans to plead not guilty.
Within a day of his arrest, there were two fundraisers for Mangione’s defense on GiveSendGo, a platform popular in some circles because it has looser standards than more mainstream sites. One has already raised over $30,000 toward its $200,000 goal. The other collected over $3,000 before it was taken down for unknown reasons.
Donors there are sharing well wishes for Mangione, trashing health insurers, and describing nightmarish experiences with insurance companies. A person who gave $100 said they have multiple sclerosis, like my mother, seething that their unnamed provider “laughs at my suffering, since I’m JUST NOISE.” Of Mangione, they wrote, “I will support you and anyone who will fight these greedy CEOs.”
Now people are even getting tattoos of Mangione. One Bluesky user said fans are calling him “the adjuster.”
It’s pretty telling that, from the moment news broke that Thompson had been gunned down, people assumed that the motive was going to have something to do with his role as a CEO at the largest health insurance provider in America. Details that have come to light since the shooting and Mangione’s arrest have only confirmed such suspicions in the minds of those who believe he is the shooter.
The bullet casings were etched with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” widely believed to be a reference to the 2010 book about the health insurance industry by expert Jay Feinman Delay Deny Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.
The New York Times reports that Mangione had a debilitating spinal condition that left him in severe pain and, according to a friend, unable to have intimate relationships. At 26, he had just passed the age that the Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to keep offspring on their parents’ plans. Maryland, where he is originally from, also lets insurers kick adult children off parents’ policies at 26.
For those convinced that he’s the killer, the manifesto Mangione supposedly had on him at the time of his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s is further proof that animosity toward health insurers like United was the motive. (It’s of note that the McDonald’s has been inundated with negative reviews due to a staffer calling the cops on Mangione and local police say they’ve received death threats since arresting him.)
On Tuesday, journalist Ken Klippenstein published the text of the purported manifesto. In it, Mangione allegedly wrote, “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”
Mangione has claimed that police planted evidence on him during his arrest, specifically $10,000 in cash, but reportedly has not claimed the manifesto was planted.
It’s virtually unheard of to be celebrated for killing someone who, at least on paper, was completely innocent. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. Mangione has become a folk hero akin to Robin Hood.
Some have already made a Saint Mangione subreddit; within two hours on Wednesday morning, its membership more than doubled.
That’s how much we hate the health insurance industry. An alleged killer, who also happens to be a white male who went to an Ivy League school and grew up in a family of privilege—facts that would ordinarily work against him in the court of public opinion—is being celebrated for walking up behind a husband and father—facts that would ordinarily work overwhelmingly for him in the public’s mind—and shooting him in the back. Meanwhile, the victim and his employer are being dragged through the mud.
My insurer’s refusal to cover that Chloraseptic for my sore throat was more amusing than inconvenient. But for the 70,000 Americans who will die this year due to lack of healthcare, the 100 million burdened with medical debt, and the hundreds of thousands who file for bankruptcy due to medical bills every year, being denied care is no laughing matter. It can literally be life or death. And that transcends politics, even today.
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