Free Luigi!
On December 4, Luigi Mangione gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
About a month prior on November 1, giant American health insurance company Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield had all but finalized plans to limit minutes (i.e. coverage) of medically necessary anesthesia for patients. In short, if you suddenly woke up during major surgery, you would have to pay out of pocket before the doctor could continue administering treatment pain-free.
The initiative was dressed up in usual corporate speak:
Anthem had said that starting in February it would use metrics — known as Physician Work Time values — from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to “target the number of minutes reported for anesthesia services.”
Fierce activist voices soon began to howl! Statements were released! One from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and another from Connecticut Senator (D-Conn) Chris Murphy, both of whom decried the planned move upcoming as a cynical money-grab.
(Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a subsidiary of Elevance Heath, netted 6.3 billion in revenue in 2023 and 2.3 billion thus far for the first two quarters of 2024.)
State Senator (R-Conn) Jeff Gordon also sent a letter!
NY Governor Kathy Hochul made a statement!
Suddenly, on December 5, Anthem Blue Cross decided to scrap the money-grabbing scheme outright:
"There has been significant widespread misinformation about an update to our anesthesia policy. As a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change," the company said in a statement to NPR on Thursday afternoon.”
All this one day after the assassination of Brian Thompson.
Imagine that.
At least we didn’t have to wait for a sequel to Sicko.
Libertarians rejoice! No need for ineffectual big government interference. Free choice exercised by a free individual indeed guided the market towards a socially optimal outcome.