Let’s Name the Healthcare Reform Bill After Brian Thompson

Everyday thousands of Americans are denied health insurance claims. The gatekeepers of healthcare charge a monthly premium plus co-pays, yet still tell thousands of Americans to fuck off when they need to use the healthcare insurance service they pay for.

UnitedHealthcare probably handles millions of claims every year and denies around 33% of them, allegedly, meaning the insurance company rejects thousands of medical claims every single day. Now, that’s only an estimate and just one healthcare insurance company. I wonder how many insurance claims are denied daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Thank the heavens for the internet.

Experian Health’s 2024 State of Claims report says that nearly 40% of healthcare providers experience claim denial rates of at least 10%, with some facing rates exceeding 15% (United Healthcare denies double the national average). The National Council for Behavioral Health reports that over half of all mental health claims are denied. Between 2022 and 2023, denials for Medicare Advantage claims rose by nearly 56%, while private, commercial claims saw an increase of over 20%. Look, I’m no math guy, but these numbers make it seem like potentially millions of healthcare claims are denied every year. That doesn’t even touch on the cost of medical care. Despite insurance, many Americans go bankrupt or are unable to receive care due to cost. Hence the indifference and celebration of some Americans for Brian Thompson. And that’s only a fraction of the Americans that have suffered because of health insurance companies.

It is a tragedy that Brian Thompson was gunned down in the streets. Loss of life doesn’t just affect the person that moves on from this world. Why do we mourn the loss of one man when thousands die every day from being priced out or denied of basic healthcare? Because it was a horrific death caught on camera? Certainly, a dark day in America, but while politicians and reporters express grief for the murder of Brian Thompson and disgust at the American public’s reaction, I ask where is this outrage while millions of Americans are denied health insurance claims? These denials eventually kill thousands of Americans every year. If not dead, bankruptcy or living a life full of pain. All because the company that’s supposed to provide them with healthcare denies them the exact thing they pay for. Don’t give me the fine print, business bullshit. Healthcare shouldn’t be a menu with prices and exceptions. We need to find a way to keep people alive without draining their pockets. That’s the human thing to do, isn’t it?

But you won’t hear this discussion if you read, listen, or watch the news today.

Our media’s narrative has turned into attractive rich people who read the news from a screen for a living scold the common American. Get over yourself. Your little bubble of existence can’t even compare to most people’s lived experience. You have no idea what life is like for most of us. Listen for once instead of spewing your bullshit. Look how we’re being talked down to about Brian Thompson’s murder. Forget discussing the public reaction as a sign of bigger issues. Instead lecture us as you enjoy comprehensive health insurance plans. The public’s reaction to Brian Thompson’s death is frustration with a system that leaves millions of us suffering while those making policies and discussing it are untouched by these struggles. Just because something isn’t an issue for you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect other people. So why not discuss healthcare insurance reform, which every single reporter, editor, and newsreader has admitted to being a major problem in America?

It’s too boring. There are no good visuals. It won’t hook people. Who wants to talk about complex policy or changes to a corrupt system that no longer works for most Americans? It won’t get clicks or shares on social media. If people aren’t engaging with content, advertisers will pull out, leaving newsrooms broke. Subscriptions don’t pay reporter salaries, folks. And Brian Thompson is buried, no point in discussing him anymore. That won’t bring in eyes on news content. You know what does?

The American public playing detective. Per usual, our media has turned the Brian Thompson murder into a LIVE true crime play along. Everyone deciphering clues to piece together the puzzle. Glued to their screens. Waiting to see if updates match the narrative we’ve made up in our head. The Left laminating healthcare insurance and economic inequality. The Right blaming indoctrination from a liberal education. The middle? Hate seeing a father or two gunned down in cold blood on the streets, but also understand why it happened. Understanding and condoning this violence are two different things.

America has historical context for this. There was a tea party back in 1773 that was the result of the common man being nickeled and dimed. That’s not the only time Americans have used violence when they had enough, either.

In 1831, enslaved preacher Nat Turner led an uprising in Virginia, killing dozens of white people before being violently suppressed. The rebellion sent shockwaves through the South, scaring the hell out of slaveholders. They responded the way scared people in power usually do… doubling down on oppression.

In 1859, John Brown led an armed raid on a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to kick off a slave rebellion. It didn’t work. Brown was executed. But like Turner, Brown’s defiance split the nation, pushing the U.S. closer to the Civil War.

In 1955, a 14-year-old black boy, Emmett Till, was lynched in Mississippi for the “crime” of allegedly whistling at a white woman. His killers walked free, of course. But his mother refused to let his death be ignored. She made sure the world saw what was done to her son, holding an open-casket funeral. The image of his mutilated body shocked the nation and became fuel for the Civil Rights Movement. There’s also John Brown in 1955, Nat Turner’s uprising in 1831 and the Stonewall Riots in 1969, just to name a few more violent instances that sparked change.

In 1969, police raided another gay bar in New York City expecting to arrest and torment members of the LGBTQ+ community. Not this time. The LGBTQ+ patrons fought back. Days of protests and clashes followed, sparking the start of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

History shows that when injustice is ignored long enough, people eventually snap. Change often comes after society is forced to reckon with its failures. It’s messy, violent, and tragic, but it can be avoided. Violence is never the ideal path to change. These historical examples are warnings of what happens when societal injustices go unaddressed, not as endorsements of violent action.

Rather than assume the American public reaction is wrong, perhaps we should dig deeper and find the root cause. Americans are suffering and have been for a so long. This isn’t a reflection of people being awful, but a hurting nation. Brian Thompson isn’t the only person dying in the streets. We need healthcare reform. We’ve needed it for decades. We’re seeing no self-reflection from the C-suite. Executives are beefing up security and scrubbing digital footprints. How about doing a better job for the American public instead of making shareholders rich? We’re literally fucking dying. Maybe share a little or do they not teach that in business school?

Brian Thompson’s death should not just be a statistic or a sensationalized headline. His murder is a tragedy, but it’s also a breaking point. Change is needed. Desperately. Personally, I think we should name the healthcare reform bill after him. I heard on a few news programs that Brian was “one the good ones” and trying to “fight for healthcare reform.” Let that be his legacy. Brian Thompson couldn’t fix healthcare during his life but fixed our broken system for all Americans in his death. Now that’s a legacy.