Sixty-nine percent of respondents said denying coverage by insurance companies such as United Healthcare was “very or somewhat” responsible for Thompson’s murder.
67% said it was because medical insurance companies were making exorbitant profits.
UnitedHealthcare, which reported $16 billion in profits last year, has drawn anger over its practice of denying insurance claims. A Senate investigation earlier this year found the company was one of three companies in Medicare Advantage plans that intentionally denied claims to nursing home patients who suffered falls or strokes in order to increase profits. It turned out to be.
The company also faces a class action lawsuit over its use of algorithms to deny care.
A Commonwealth Fund survey last year found that 17% of Americans had been told their health care claim had been denied by an insurance company, and many patients and doctors reported being denied treatment by companies like United Airlines. It was suggested that he felt unable to stop. More than half said neither they nor their doctors objected to the insurance company’s decision.
The poll echoes the results of a NORC survey released Friday, in which 15% of respondents said they had had a claim denied.
The poll, published by NBC News, finds cancer patients are disproportionately influenced by claim denials and insurance company requirements to get “pre-authorization” to receive life-saving treatments. It was announced on the same day that the. This request is a difficult process that can delay treatment and treatment. Allow their condition to worsen.
A study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 22% of cancer patients refuse or do not receive treatment prescribed by their doctor because of prior authorization requirements.
A 2022 survey of oncologists found that 42% of prior authorizations were delayed by more than one business day, and 14% of those delays had a significant negative impact on patients.
Patients experienced “disease progression” 80% of the time and “loss of life” 36% of the time.
Insurers are increasingly relying on prior authorizations to delay or deny care to cancer patients, a 2023 study found. The number of non-specialty oncology drugs requiring prior approval increased from 16% in 2010 to 78% in 2020.
NBC News reports that Tracy Pike, a patient who died after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois refused to cover her $40,000 treatment for stage 4 stomach cancer (surgery and intensive chemotherapy) recommended by her doctor. told the story.
Blue Cross cited research by company doctors who are obstetricians and gynecologists rather than medical oncologists, saying that even though the treatment is routinely prescribed to cancer patients, it is “experimental. “It’s research and unproven.”
Journalist Ken Klippenstein said the NORC poll contained nuance that was “sorely missing from mainstream media coverage” after Thompson’s death, with people acknowledging dangerous practices in the insurance industry He noted that it was sometimes suggested that he was “supporting” the case.
The poll found that 78% of the public believed the gunman who shot and killed Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel was “very” or “somewhat” responsible for the killing.
“Compare that to the tsunami of corporate media op-eds and commentators expressing the brilliant insight that murder is wrong,” Krippenstein wrote. “Yeah, we know. Episodes like this really show how much elite media institutions despise the general public. They seem to see them as helpless children who need help.”
“As the NORC poll shows, the majority of people know that yes, of course murder is wrong. They just happen to think there’s more to this story than that. It just exists,” he continued. “And they’re right. How can we have an honest discussion about this without bringing up industries like Moloch that profit from denying people health care?”
But as Mr. Klippenstein wrote Thursday, those who engaged in that “honest discussion” in the days after Mr. Thompson’s murder were branded “extremists” by law enforcement as well as the media. It was done.
Klippenstein said that in the days after the killing, the New York City Police Department distributed an intelligence report about the suspected shooter, Luigi Mangione, 26, which included comments from people online expressing sympathy for Mangione. It also included a warning to the general public.
“The report’s title warns of a ‘broad range of extremists’ who ‘may see Mangione as a martyr’ and emphasizes ‘contempt for corporate greed,'” Krippenstein wrote, adding that the document It noted that it had been circulated to law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies across the country.
But as the latest poll shows, “it is not a fringe position to hold the health insurance industry at least partially responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO,” he wrote.
