We Are All Luigi Mangione, Even If We Don't Know It Yet
It's almost unbelievable that this 26 year old kid from a rich family in Maryland is being treated as a martyr for killing a father in the early morning hours on an NYC sidewalk. But the person he killed was a CEO of a major insurance company. People have been so screwed over by the health insurance industry for so long that they empathize with this alleged shooter, maybe even wishing they had the gall to pull off what he did. I am rarely captivated by major news stories, but this one is almost unavoidable due to its nature.
I do want to state what I hope is obvious: I do not condone murder.
What I do condone is taking action for a worthy and just cause. It does seem that the peaceful protesting has not made any positive changes in the insurance industry, and so I argue that it is understandable that someone could be pushed to the point of harming an individual in charge of an insurance company.
It does seem that many, if not most, insurance companies treat their customer base in such a way that premature deaths are excusable. According to The New York Times and KFF, insurance companies deny roughly 17% of claims. It’s worth noting that denial rate data is not required to be disclosed to the public, so there is truly no way to know the actual number of denied claims. People have to pay out of pocket for life-saving medicine and procedures that they trusted their insurance provider to pay for. After all, what are we even paying for if it does not provide the service it claims to?
Personally, I have been denied medical services by health insurance in the past because they did not believe I had gall bladder issues at 19 years old. There was just no way I needed to have it removed, they said. I continued to have digestive issues, but luckily, I have since been safe from gall bladder attacks. I do also know what it's like to have intense back pain, and I have had a similar surgery to this young kid. Almost two years ago, I had a spinal fusion after living with intense back pain for almost an entire year since starting a heavy-lifting job that I could not just up and leave. Coincidentally, my fusion and metal spinal support is in nearly the same location as his. And I still have nerve issues due to the long term nerve compression.
There have already been changes affected by this shooting. BCBS was going to stop covering anesthesia for the entire length of surgeries in some states, and they have since back-peddled on this plan. We can only hope that more insurance companies follow suit, but the sad reality is that they will spend more insured persons' money on security for their higher-ups and deny more care for those same people in order to pay for it. Unfortunately, we have since learned that United, the parent company of the murdered CEO's, says they will continue business as usual.
I just read the short manifesto found on Luigi. It's nothing prolific, but it makes a strong point that health care in the United States is number one in cost worldwide, but we are 42nd in life expectancy. The only reason for this is greed. If the general American population were being taken care of the same as in other actually-first-world countries, our life expectancy would be similar to theirs. This not only applies to the health insurance arena, but also what passes for consumable goods. A couple weeks ago, I literally had a female customer tell me that RFK Jr is going to fix our food system in January. I had no response for her, just a blank stare. Meanwhile, dozens of people are getting sick from raw milk sold by a farm that RFK Jr has either invested in or advertised. Trae Crowder, the “liberal redneck comedian”, likes to say that we are in the dumbest timeline. It certainly does feel like we are en route to the society portrayed in Idiocracy. At least Crocs are comfortable. But I digress.
The internet is running rampant with speculation about why Luigi planned out this assassination, so I figured I'd go ahead and add my own ideas about what lead to the murder of an insurance CEO to the mix.
Perhaps Luigi found himself addicted to pain pills the way many others do when facing terrible spine and nerve pain. He was not in his right mind, angry and full of knowledge about corporate greed that had personally affected him. Fueled by this narcotic rage and wanting to re-gain attention that he once had as valedictorian of his high school, he obtained a gun with suppressor, either by building it himself or purchasing it, made some fake IDs, bought some bus tickets, and headed for NYC. He probably recently lost his health care coverage upon turning 26, and maybe they delayed his care until that time so that they would not have to pay for a procedure that would lessen his pain. Maybe he was not using pain medicine, and the pain was enough to cause him to get to the point of determination to make a statement about the state of our health insurance industry.
Pain is a hell of a drug.