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Cory Doctorow's Prescient Novella About Health Insurance and Murder (theguardian.com) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the startling-parallels dept.
Five years ago, journalist and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow published a short story that explored the radicalization of individuals denied healthcare coverage. As The Guardian notes in a recent article, the story "might seem eerily similar" to the recent shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO. While it appears that the alleged shooter never read the story, Doctorow said: "I feel like the most important thing about that is that it tells you that this is not a unique insight." Doctorow continued: "that the question that I had is a question other people have had." As an activist in favor of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, it's important to note that Doctorow advocates for systemic reform through collective action rather than violence. Here's an excerpt from the The Guardian's article: In Radicalized, one of four novellas comprising a science fiction novel of the same name, Doctorow charts the journey of a man who joins an online forum for fathers whose partners or children have been denied healthcare coverage by their insurers after his wife is diagnosed with breast cancer and denied coverage for an experimental treatment. Slowly, over the course of the story, the men of the forum become radicalized by their grief and begin plotting -- and executing -- murders of health insurance executives and politicians who vote against universal healthcare.

In the wake of the December 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which unleashed a wave of outrage at the U.S. health system, Doctorow's novella has been called prescient. When the American Prospect magazine republished the story last week, it wrote: "It is being republished with permission for reasons that will become clear if you read it." But Doctorow doesn't think he was on to something that no one else in the U.S. understood. [...]

In one part of the story, a man whose young daughter died after an insurance company refused to pay for brain surgery bombs the insurer's headquarters. "It's not vengeance. I don't have a vengeful bone in my body. Nothing I do will bring Lisa back, so why would I want revenge? This is a public service. There's another dad just like me," he shares in a video message on the forum. "And right now, that dad is talking to someone at Cigna, or Humana, or BlueCross BlueShield, and the person on the phone is telling that dad that his little girl has. To. Die. Someone in that building made the decision to kill my little girl, and everyone else in that building went along with it. Not one of them is innocent, and not one of them is afraid. They're going to be afraid, after this."

"Because they must know in their hearts," he goes on. "Them, their lobbyists, the men in Congress who enabled them. They're parents. They know. Anyone who hurt their precious children, they'd hunt that person down like a dog. The only amazing thing about any of this is that no one has done it yet. I'm going to make a prediction right now, that even though I'm the first, I sure as hell will not be the last. There's more to come."

Cory Doctorow's Prescient Novella About Health Insurance and Murder More | Reply

Cory Doctorow's Prescient Novella About Health Insurance and Murder

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  • Doctorow charts the journey of a man whose... wife is diagnosed with breast cancer and denied coverage for an experimental treatment. Slowly, over the course of the story, the men of the forum become radicalized by their grief and begin plotting -- and executing -- murders of health insurance executives and politicians who vote against universal healthcare.

    I'm all for universal healthcare (and I'm against killing people who aren't, feel like I have to say that these days), but I find it bizarre how many people think that government health care will solve whatever particular problem they're bothered by, like that it will necessarily mean coverage will never be denied for that experimental treatment your wife wants.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Sure, you may or may not get experimental treatment under universal healthcare, but you're more likely to get it in a system that isn't motivated by profit.

      I know this is anecdotal, but... my sister has a chronic disease and she was living in the USA. She moved back to Canada 9 years ago and was given an experimental treatment that turned out to be extremely effective and that allows her to live a normal life. The treatment is very expensive, but she does not have to pay anything for it.

      I do not think h

    • I'm all for universal healthcare (and I'm against killing people who aren't, feel like I have to say that these days), but I find it bizarre how many people think that government health care will solve whatever particular problem they're bothered by

      In the case of Luigi, it doesn't sound like it will make any difference at all. From his notebook, it seems he was outraged because one doctor told him that no other doctors would even think about performing the surgery until he was at least 40. Doesn't matter who the payer is, if no doctors will perform the surgery, it's not happening. Somehow he got it in his head that this means an insurance executive needs to die. Curious how many more he would kill until he realizes that changing the payer wouldn't do

  • it's important to note that Doctorow advocates for systemic reform through collective action rather than violence

    Some of us are MLK Jr., some are Malcolm X.

  • Trauma Team Platinum package.

  • Irregularities of the US Medical System (Score:3)

    by silentbozo ( 542534 ) on Friday December 20, 2024 @10:11PM (#65029975) Journal

    From the standpoint of most of the rest of the developed world, the US medical system is... weird.

    TL;DR - we have doctors in places that make it easier to get high end medical care but much more difficult to get routine medical care, and a system that incentivizes people not to spend money, to the benefit of the insurer. The supply shortage is not getting better (due to the long lead time to training medical professionals), and there's a lot of friction that makes it more advantageous to get paid more to do specialist care for the same amount of time worked, because the overhead involved makes it much harder and much less rewarding to do basic care, beyond the issue with paying back student loans.

    -------

    First, let us look at cost. The US has a reputation of having really good specialist care - so good that apparently well heeled people from other countries regularly come here to have cutting edge procedures done, or to do routine scans that are booked up in their home country.

    "These hospitals and clinics are offering inbound medical tourism services to patients who come to the U.S. for higher quality than they can receive in their home country, access to procedures that are not available in their country’s healthcare facilities, freedom from long wait times or the rationing of procedures because of national governmental regulations, because of the ability to combine tourism opportunities in the U.S., and/or (believe it or not!) because the price differential- paying for services in cash in the U.S. may be less expensive than in their home country."

    https://www.magazine.medicalto... [medicaltourism.com]

    "For many Canadians, the prospect of enduring prolonged wait times for medical imaging, such as MRI scans, prompts them to explore alternative avenues. This has led to a growing trend of Canadians venturing south of the border to the United States to secure expedited MRI appointments."

    https://www.cmimri.ca/navigati... [cmimri.ca]

    Paradoxically though, we have the opposite happening within the US, where some patients resort having procedures done overseas. We also have long lines in order to get seen by general practitioners. In other cases, US citizens forego basic care due to cost.

    "Medical tourism is a worldwide, multibillion-dollar market that continues to grow with the rising globalization of health care. Surveillance data indicate that millions of US residents travel internationally for medical care each year. Medical tourism destinations for US residents include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Singapore, and Thailand. Categories of procedures that US medical tourists pursue include cancer treatment, dental care, fertility treatments, organ and tissue transplantation, and various forms of surgery, including bariatric, cosmetic, and non-cosmetic (e.g., orthopedic)."

    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/y... [cdc.gov]

    "Opponents of universal health care often predict it would lead to long waits to see a doctor, but patients in the U.S. already face unacceptable delays in getting routine care.

    Jam-packed appointment schedules have endured for years. Check out this Business Week story from 2007: “The Doctor Will See You—In Three Months.” However, the lack of a national reporting system to track and disclose wait times to the public — a feature in some other countries — has largely obscured the problem here.

    With no comprehensive data, journalists rely on a hodgepodge of studies that suggest patients often wait a month or more for a slot on a doctor’s schedule."

  • I was anticipating something like this with the 2008 crash.

    People lose their life savings and only bankers are made whole? You'll at least get 3 squares and a cot in prison (and free healthcare).

    As long as law excessively favors business (arbitration, outright theft as "billing errors", slap on the wrist penalties as the cost of doing business, etc.), people will make their own justice with the means available to them as there is no recourse coming from institutions.

  • Insurance industry under guidance of CEOs is very clearly violating social contracts by maliciously denying coverage to policy holders. Losing in court as a delay tactic is immoral and there should be personal consequences for people that decided to try it.

    • Part of the problem is competition.

      Paradoxically, the individual mandate under the ACA creates a situation where you don't actually need to deliver better service to get customers. For those who correctly point out that the ACA individual mandate was removed as of 2019 ( https://www.healthinsurance.or... [healthinsurance.org] ), there are those of us in states that enacted their own mandates who are subject to similar provisions (minimum $900 or 2.5% of your yearly income penalty in California. Good luck if you just become une

  • I get ready disappointed when any insurance claim is denied. I pay and pay but no insurance company has ever approved a dime

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