1 week Ago
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.
) on Thursday shared a message to those surprised by the hostile response to the health insurance industry following the recent fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . “This is not to say that an act of violence is justified but I think for anyone who is confused or shocked or appalled, they need to understand that people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them,” the New York congresswoman told CBS News’ Jaala Brown . Ocasio-Cortez, who noted that Americans’ collective “pain” is being “concentrated” on the shooting, said people go homeless as a result of “the financial devastation of a diagnosis that doesn’t get addressed or the amount they’re going to have to cover with a surprise bill.
” “And when we kind of talk about how systems are violent in this country in this passive way, our privatized health care system is like that for a huge amount of Americans,” explained Ocasio-Cortez, who noted that she didn’t have health insurance until she was elected to Congress. She later continued, “Health care in this country has gotten to a such a depraved state that people are living with things they should never have to live with. And this is not to say and this is not to participate in that glorification but we need to understand that extreme levels of inequality in the United States yield high degrees of social instability.
” Regarding the public reaction to the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Thursday, "I think people need to really understand how much everyday people are living with." "This is not to say that an act of violence is..
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com/nYiNASNElW Her comments come as Americans have expressed hate and vitriol towards the health insurance industry and heroized Luigi Mangione — the 26-year-old charged with killing Thompson — via video edits , thirst posts and other forms of fanfare on social media. An alleged digital footprint left by Mangione points to years of debilitating back pain which led to a surgery last year while his reported “manifesto” questioned why the U.S.
has the “most expensive” health care in the world while the country doesn’t have the top life expectancy among nations. Ocasio-Cortez told Business Insider on Wednesday that the reaction to the shooting reflects a “mass bubbling of resentment around the precarity that people have been living with.” “Of course, we don’t want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents,” she said.
“We also don’t want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family’s lives.” Don't let this be the end of the free press. The free press is under attack — and America's future hangs in the balance.
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Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. She continued, “I think for people who are surprised, it’s a wake-up call for how much of this exists in our society.” Related From Our Partner.
