Luigi Mangione-inspired ballot initiative targets health insurance denials

I know this is an unpopular opinion here, but Luigi Mangione as martyr figure makes me extremely uncomfortable. This is a very different situation than the Aaron Swartz or any of the other <i>victims</i> of abuse by powerful people and corporations.<p>What precedent are we setting by explicitly making &quot;murder someone&quot; a viable path to making progress on your personal political agenda? It&#x27;s one thing when you agree with the motive, but are we ready to accept the inevitable outcome that someone decides to engineer a high-profile murder to push a different agenda?<p>In a lot of ways this is like all the media attention on school shootings: we <i>will</i> see copycats, and the next one may not be targeting an unsympathetic healthcare CEO.

Good, your insurance company should get no say on this matter. If your doctor prescribes it, insurance pays. If you think the doctor is committing fraud then you can take that up with the doctor, not the patient.<p>The mistreatment by insurance companies is so normal now that people are just defeated. My MIL has been trying different treatments for over a decade and <i>finally</i> found a drug that can manage her chronic spinal pain. She&#x27;s finally mobile enough to play with my nephews. And because her work switched insurance she now going through years of needless bullshit to prove to <i>this</i> insurance company that no really, this is the only thing that works. And now she has to pay for it out of pocket and it&#x27;s over $1000&#x2F;mo. I know, I know, you would really rather pay for the cheaper thing that doesn&#x27;t.

It&#x27;s very interesting that insurance companies take so much of the blame for healthcare costs in the US, given that they are essentially the only player in the entire system, (alongside the patient), that is against price increases and overbilling by providers.<p>I recently had an endoscopy done. Simple 15 minute operation where they look at your insides with a camera. They put you under for it. I got the itemized bill in the mail and the anesthesiologist alone charged $738 for the 15 minutes. Of course they probably also did some work pre&#x2F;post op, but the fact that there were 4 people in the room and one charged $738 for 15 minutes makes it very hard to imagine healthcare costs going down without pinching providers. AKA doctors. My insurer isn&#x27;t even for-profit.

Associating a political initiative with an unrepentant murderer is a pretty bad idea. Imagine anti-abortion activists decided to make James Kopp the centerpiece of the movement.

This is a very Californian solution to the problem. Prediction: we’re going to see a <i>lot</i> more MRIs.