I've been quiet about Luigi Mangione and his alleged shooting of United Healthcare Group executive Brian Thompson, mostly because I wanted to absorb and think about the rage this event has raised in the American public.
I had my own experiences with United Healthcare a couple of years ago when both of my parents had nasty falls that landed them in the hospital and then in a rehabilitation center. Because it was unsafe for them to return to the home they'd lived in for years, I had the task of moving them out to live near me after buying a house nearby (they wouldn't consider assisted living at all...long story). UHC was their Medicare Advantage insurer and I had to fight with them for every damn thing, and ended up having to spend thousands of my parents' money to get them out of the damn rehab center and home. Even after that, I got bills for MORE thousands.
Suffice it to say, the first thing I did after getting them out here was switch to Kaiser, which is the only Medicare Advantage plan I'd ever recommend. I was still paying bills for denied claims by UHC for months afterwards. My stepdad had two melanomas removed just before all of this, and bills rolled in on that for months, too.
All of this to say I really understand why people are overwhelmed and pissed off at our crazy private healthcare system. But no one has put it as elegantly as AOC.
