Many of us have had our fair share of frustrations with insurance companies. A friend of mine’s experience several years ago after being struck by another car is typical.
The crash in which her vehicle was rear-ended left her with a case of whiplash. After a couple of years of wrangling over compensation for the physical therapy she needed, she finally agreed to be examined by a doctor paid by the insurance company. She was told if she didn’t agree, her file would be closed.
With the help of a lawyer, she finally received a settlement of a few thousand dollars. And, surprise, a third of that went to her lawyer.
Sadly, this sort of experience is the rule rather than the exception. In his 2020 book, Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It, Rutgers Law professor Jay M. Feinman details the many tactics insurance companies use to dodge payouts. Feinman argues that the U.S. insurance industry often delays or denies legitimate claims to fatten its profits. His book explains how the industry has become driven by the pursuit of investment income and cost-cutting measures.
The phenomenon is worse in the United States than in Canada because these insurance disputes often involve coverage for even basic medical treatment. Too often, people in the U.S. who can’t afford to fight big insurance companies in court don’t get the coverage they need for life-saving treatment. Many lose their homes and face bankruptcy. Some of them die because they didn’t receive care in a timely fashion.
That just ain’t right.
You know where this is going. The casings of the bullets that killed Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, had the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” etched on them. The man accused of using those bullets, Luigi Mangione, is reported to have had a major chip on his shoulder about insurance companies, according to the feeding frenzy of news reports that appeared after his arrest.
Americans have good reason to resent their health care insurers, and UnitedHealthcare stands near the head of the pack. A recent U.S. Senate report says UnitedHealthcare more than doubled the rate of denials for post-acute care for the elderly as it pressured human reviewers to strictly adhere to its algorithmic recommendation system.
Mangione was likely motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and his disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by the Associated Press.
There is much we do not yet know about the alleged assailant, and it’s reasonable to assume the full story won’t come out until the case goes to trial. However, it’s not a stretch to say anyone who shoots another person in cold blood is in a bad mental state, and perhaps even psychotic. It is a horrible crime for which there is no justification.
Yet it’s fascinating to see that a growing number of Americans think this violent act was justified. To some, Mangione is a folk hero, a vigilante expressing the rage so many people in that troubled country feel toward these greedy, callous institutions.
What is beyond question is that this brutal act has torn open a festering wound in the U.S. It is rooted in the same populist revolt that drove many Americans to elect as president a man whose greatest selling point was his willingness to flip the bird at every institution and tradition the country was built on. Pundits called it “right-wing” populism; Mangione’s alleged act seems to have tapped into a “left-wing” version of the same anger. Populism, it turns out, knows no ideological bounds. As Marlon Brando’s character in Rebel Without a Cause said when asked what he was rebelling against: “Whatya got?”
What America has is a growing dissatisfaction with the established order. Health care insurers are the canaries in the coal mine. If those executives keep hiding behind gated communities while carrying on business as usual, the volcano of unrest gets closer to erupting.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal during the Great Depression in the 1930s, he understood that unfettered laissez-faire capitalism would collapse without timely government intervention to moderate its excesses. Left unchecked, it would, in effect, prove Karl Marx’s argument that capitalist-driven exploitation would bring about the system’s demise.
Roosevelt’s bold interventions arguably saved U.S. capitalism. It’s a model modern governments would do well to emulate.
For all its faults, Canada’s health care system – though strained by wait times and worker shortages – is still far more compassionate and equitable than the U.S. system, where access to life-saving treatment often depends on the ability to afford insurance.
The U.S. health insurance industry is an outrageous and soulless mess. If governments fail to recognize the problem and act, those executives may never be able to leave their bunkers. The troubles in health care may be a bellwether for even greater unrest.
Doug Firby is an award-winning editorial writer with over four decades of experience working for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Ontario and western Canada. Previously, he served as Editorial Page Editor at the Calgary Herald.
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