Failing U.S. Healthcare Turns Luigi Mangione Into Modern Folk Hero

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Link - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/us-health-insurance-system-doctors

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Luigi Mangione, becomes a folk hero. The guy's a nutcase. He really is a total nutcase. But if you look at the stories, I think you gave me this story, as a matter of fact, it's where we're talking about health insurance, how it's failing to the point to where not just thousands of people dying. Tens of thousands of people are dying. And it's really driven by United Healthcare to some degree. United Healthcare, of course, you know the story. Luigi takes him out and half the country says, oh, this is brilliant. Well, why did they say that? Why did they say, this is a modern folk hero? I mean, when you drill down on the guy, he's completely bonkers. He really is, he's totally bonkers. But when you have half the public saying, this is okay.
I would venture to say at this point, it may even be more than it half of the public.
You think it is? Alright.
And this is one of those issues where you got Republicans and Democrats kind of united, everybody, they are not complaining about what he did, I guess is the best way to say it. But, you're right though, because United Healthcare is the driver. They deny more claims than any other insurance company.
Tell the viewers how they go about.
Yeah. This is the sick, sick part. Because now the doctors are speaking out and the doctors have come forward and they've told The Guardian, listen, when I order a test for a patient, because I need to see where exactly the tumor is so I want the CAT scan, the MRI, whatever, I need to see where it is so that I don't make a five inch incision when I can make a one inch incision. So I need to run this test. We gotta do this scan. Then what happens is that I have to submit it to their insurance company. And then that insurance company says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You need to have a peer to peer, they're called, review. So the doctor has to spend hours on the telephone with what they're told is their peer, but really, it's just a regular person. They're not doctors. They're not health experts. They do not have training in these areas and they're sitting there telling the doctor, no, no, this patient doesn't need this procedure. Just go in there willy-nilly, cut out the tumor and get out of there. It's crazy.
You know the case we've just finished last year, Virginia Buchanan and our law firm was the lawyer on the Blue Cross Blue Shield case which settled for several billion dollars. And the documents say this, it's not just Blue Cross Blue Shield. Their goal is they know the psychology of delay. Alright, this is how ghoulish this is. They understand that somebody who's going through a medical crisis is already diminished. Their ability to be able to take care of themself is already diminished. Their idea of getting on a telephone and actually working out, well, why aren't you paying this and spending hours on the phone, that ability is diminished. The ability for the doctor to be able to do that from a time standpoint is virtually impossible. So they figured out there's this sweet spot. Claimant makes a claim.
We know if we delay 27 days or 28 days, we understand that the chances of that claim falling through are dramatically increased. Will the person die? Probably. We didn't get them care. Something as simple as a PET scan. And we want to run a PET scan because we want to understand where the tumor is. Right. The doctor can't just go in there looking for a tumor randomly, he has to know where the tumor is. So we delay the PET scan, it ends up in death. The point is this, it's almost, it's hard to argue with the public's reaction to the insurance industry. And this is an industry, there's nothing, this is not like the property insurance industry where you have a big hurricane or a big fire and you say, my God, they're failing.