'It didn't use to be like this': woeful US healthcare system exposed by CEO killing

Since the fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, polarised discussions about the US health insurance system have not abated, with thousands of Americans continuing to share their struggles in having their healthcare covered.

Hundreds of people from across the US shared their frustrations with the Guardian, too, explaining how their lives had been shaped by their experiences of trying to access healthcare in the US.

While many reported that their health coverage had worsened in recent years, particularly in 2024, Elizabeth, a 64-year-old retiree from Maryland, already experienced the system’s brutality more than 20 years ago, when she lived in California and was involved in a serious car accident during a business trip to another state in 2002.

“I was treated at a trauma hospital for three days,” she recalled. “My insurer denied coverage because the care had not been pre-approved, and because the accident was not in California. It was insane.”

Only repeated calls by her employer’s head of HR persuaded her insurer to eventually partly cover her treatment, she said. “I was very, very lucky,” Elizabeth said. “Health insurance in the US is a constant battle. You’re always trying to get stuff covered, you’re always told that things are being denied.”

The same insurance company later denied coverage for a standard chemotherapy drug with which her oncologist wanted to treat her stage 3 breast cancer, she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/05/heatlhcare-insurance-challenges

SINGLE PAYER NOW! (Not that RepubliKKKans would even consider it!)