Luigi Mangione Isn’t
The Only Murderer
James Horn

I cannot Condone nor Condemn Luigi Mangione’s killing of UHC CEO Thompson, a symbolic target of Mangione’s fury. In some cultures, a ‘target’ must have provoked a killer’s action, and life or long-term prison sentences are limited.

Mangione has accumulated a following of fans for his courage.

In my case, Mangione’s act has reawakened a painful memory I have tried hard to forget. I am not alone.

One can conduct internet searches to find thousands of tales of denial that brought about unmitigated pain, untold emotional and physical suffering, broken homes, homelessness, destroyed families, lives ruined, drug addiction, alcoholism, suicides – all because the ‘system’ has failed them miserably AND INTENTIONALLY. Patient ignorance, some bad doctors, lawyers, judges, courts, laws, legislators, insurers, etc. are all a part of the cruel patient denial conspiracy.

After I was sidelined with an illness that nearly killed me and left me temporarily feeble, we lost our house. My energetic, fearless wife got involved in the auto sales business. She was a consummate professional who earned the respect of peers and did her job well. We were able to purchase a smaller house and settled in. I started working in a hardware store.
One evening at closing time, my wife mounted a high lift truck to close the hood and tumbled more than six feet to the pavement severely injuring herself. Her back was torqued, and her hip was crushed (but not broken). Nobody was nearby and after she regained her senses and hobbled into the store to report her injury, her supervisor sent her home. Thus began a journey through hell.
The following day, her employer sent her to an orthopedic specialist who x-rayed her and determined that nothing was broken, gave her a prescription for pain and sent her home. Our lives changed. We continued with this doctor until we realized that he would not address her injuries.
She continued working through her pain, but her performance faltered. We persisted in trying to get her employer engaged in caring for her and were stonewalled.
Our family insurance is excellent, and we contacted our provider who refused stating that her injury, being work related was a workers’ comp issue.
My wife’s football sized hematoma cleared, and my wife started walking with a gimpy gait to alleviate her hip pain, but this exacerbated her injured spine. She was suffering continuously.
We reached out to the California workers comp people who sent her to a pain management specialist who prescribed pain medications, nothing more. This nice doctor was a specialist in drugging injured workers, not treating the injuries. We pursued this with the California workers comp people who denied further care or treatment for my wife.
We contacted Social Security/Medicare who refused to treat my wife because this was a workers’ comp issue.
This was a classic catch 22 situation where the entire insurance/care industry were refusing proper care or treatment. Neither the California worker’s comp gang would cooperate; Social Security/Medicare and our family insurer kicked the can. My wife’s injury and my wife had fallen through the proverbial cracks (a chasm’s actually).
At one point, I was so frustrated and angry that I fleetingly thought of getting a gun and shooting someone, That thought only lasted a moment because I’m not that stupid.
I delved into the internet seeking a solution. I discovered case after case of care or treatment denials and even injured patient abuse. I learned that thousands of injured workers were in limbo, left to suffer and wither away.
Ultimately, my wife’s employer denied her access to her work space – the Lake Elsinore, CA FORD dealership dismissed her because of her on-the-job incapacitation. With the loss of her income, we lost that house and became long-term renters.
My pay at the hardware store steadily increased. I started writing some books that brought in some income. I also found some paid speaking gigs. After about four years, we bought a modest fixer-upper house.
We consulted with an orthopedic specialist who had successfully taken care of our two boys’ athletic injuries. He advised us to get a workers’ comp lawyer which we did. All the lawyer ever did was to defend the California worker’s comp establishment and tell us that there was a law limiting our compensation for the injury. She did nothing at all to get my wife medical attention. I became convinced that she was getting paid by the worker’s comp people to railroad us. With no proof, we were screwed.
I worked with the orthopedic surgeon to get medical attention. While no health care entity would agree to paying for a surgery, I worked a deal where I paid the surgeon up front, and we proceeded with her surgery more than a dozen years after her injury. An MRI showed that a tendon linking her quadriceps had separated from her hip bone. The surgeon had to cut a near foot long incision from her hip down to her thigh where he could capture the separated tendon and draw it up where he was able to secure it back to her hip using screws, super (surgical) adhesives, etc. Properly repaired with most of her hip pain alleviated, she was walking normally within a couple of months, and the aggravation in her back lessened (but never went away).
Unable to pay the $38,000 hospital bill, we filed for bankruptcy to erase that debt.
The thousands of injured, maimed and untreated Californians have not been able to find their way out of the pit dug by the insurance industry. I can safely assume that the insurance industry has similarly condemned millions of Americans.

We have since moved to a more hospitable state where our combined pensions (including her Social Security disability pension) go further than in Commiefornia (California).
We have a son married to an Aussie, and two granddaughters in Australia. Owing to the refusals of MEDICARE, our family insurance, and denial of care by the California Worker’s comp (a likely crooked lawyer, crooked state legislators who get generous bribes by any name to pass legislation written by the insurance industry, and an uncaring judiciary, my wife and I have not been able to travel to Australia to spend time with, or to bond with our granddaughters, which causes us much sorrow.

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Filmmaker Michael Moore, reacting to being named in the manifesto of alleged killer Luigi Mangione, said he wants to “pour gasoline” on the anger being directed at the health insurance industry, which is “1,000% justified”.
Moore directed the 2007 film “Sicko” that was ostensibly referenced by Mangione in his manifesto railing against the healthcare industry. Mangione wrote that Moore was an example of someone who “illuminated the corruption and greed” of the healthcare industry.
Wrote Moore: “We pay more people to deny care than to give it. 1 million doctors to give care, 1.4 million brutes in cubicles doing their best to stop doctors from giving that care. If the purpose of ‘health care’ is to keep people alive, then what is the purpose of DENYING PEOPLE HEALTH CARE? Other than to kill them? I definitely condemn that kind of murder.” “The anger is 1000% justified. It is long overdue for the media to cover it. It is not new. It has been boiling. And I’m not going to tamp it down or ask people to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger,” he wrote.
This anger is not about the killing of a CEO. “It is about the mass death and misery — the physical pain, the mental abuse, the medical debt, the bankruptcies in the face of denied claims and denied care and bottomless deductibles on top of ballooning premiums — that this ‘health care’ industry has levied against the American people for decades,” he wrote.