predations , while the response of wealthy executives and defenders of the industry has been , well , pathetic . UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty wrote in a New York Times op-ed , “ No one would design a system like the one we have ,” and still he offered nothing more than greater transparency in how denials are decided upon rather than pledging to reduce or eliminate denials of coverage . Peter Thiel , billionaire and cofounder of PayPal , spent ten seconds sweating and thinking of a response to a question about public glee over the CEO ’ s killing before making an incoherent and nonsensical statement .
This is a moment like no other , an opportunity to rewrite the narratives around healthcare , to re-cast it as a human right , a necessity akin to public education , not a profit-making opportunity for Thompson , Witty , and health insurance shareholders .
I fear that , unless we articulate concrete demands for publicly funded healthcare , we may lose this opportunity . Since Mangione ’ s arrest , there have been concerns of copycat attacks against other insurance CEOs . A Florida woman was arrested for merely saying to a representative of Blue Cross Blue Shield after having a claim denied , “ Delay , deny , depose . You people are next .” Apparently , death threats are commonplace for health insurance executives . According to the Wall Street Journal , “ Vicky Gregg , the former CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee , said she got repeated death threats when she was in the job years ago .”
Can we unite around , not just our common hatred of a system that preys on us , but on the system that will solve the crisis ? That is our challenge . We have only a small window of time before the industry and the punditocracy that backs it could beat us into submission , convincing us that sympathy over the murder of one man ought to eclipse the neglect of millions and that there is no alternative to the unjust system we are living with .
Even Obama ultimately backed a Medicare-for-all system , albeit after he was out of office . Senator Bernie Sanders , one of the most stalwart champions of publicly funded healthcare , has called for the building of a political movement rather than random acts of violence , to replace health insurance with a singlepayer system .
Sanders said , “ The way we ’ re going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor ’ s office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet .” We deserve nothing less than that .
50 The Trial Lawyer