Hey people who live in NY sorry to be a bore but in between celebrating the child of multi millionaire healthcare capitalists as a working class hero, if you get a minute, y'all might want to look up who your representatives are and give them a call encouraging them to vote yes on Senator Mike Gianaris's healthcare bill, which will require companies to cover the cost of anesthesia throughout the entire surgery. You know. The thing that you are all giving credit to the shooter for scaring Blue Cross Blue Shield into covering? Even though it was actually democratically elected officials Mike Gianaris and Sean Scanlon in conjuction with Senator Jeff Gordon, who has been working on this for weeks? But it's up to you guys. I know there isn't a lot of time to spare between posting on tumblr about the class war and sharing CEO down memes.
You know what has really grind my gears about this whole united health CEO thing? The commentary coming from the upper upper class. Like it is so beyond ironic I feel like they’re calling the average person stupid for possibly not sensing it. I don’t know why these political commentary channels feel they have authority over us. Like I completely get why they do, it’s the money that makes them feel morally and ethically superior to us but as someone who isn’t blinded by money I DONT GET WHY????
Like there is no no no way they are trying actually tell us how to react. Not only that but to throw in politics and years of turmoil on top of it, and you know they’re just doing that because they do not understand the feeling of being so desperate for help and having to beg for supplies and being denied over and over.
“We’re gonna lose our humanity” the fact you come from a place where your humanity can be peak discourse rather than focusing on your basic needs such as LIVING is peak privilege. Sure you can think about how your words have an effect and other philosophical issues but ummmm when you can’t get your insulin and your neighbor can’t get their chemo treatment then the thoughts of words and how they bring humanity is OUT THE WINDOW.
And who do you think you are to be telling any one person how to react to a siduation ever? Isn’t that part of being human? To come to your own conclusions and, as American culture loves to highlights, be an individual? What happened to we shouldn’t blindly follow each other’s opinions? This whole thing has really been so refreshing because you see people explain their reason through personal antidote and the upper class commentary channels take that and just? Throw it away?
Disgusting, selfish, greedy. YOU lost YOUR humanity. NOT the people being demanded morals and ethics from after experiencing a life of immoral and unethical decision made for them.
What happened to free speech? Briana Boston has been charged with terrorism for repeating back to Blue Cross and Blue Shield their own polic
Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:
In an arguably unprecedented case on the meaning of free speech, a 42-year-old Florida woman named Briana Boston has been arrested and charged on terrorism charges against Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance corporation. According to the arrest affidavit, after BCBS denied her health insurance claim, Boston responded, "Delay, deny, depose. You people are next." Apparently, though Boston does not own a firearm, has no violent criminal history, and indicated no acts of violence whatsoever—this statement amounts to a threat of terrorism and mass shooting. Let’s Address This.
Briana Boston has little engagement in political activism, with a single $1 donation made to a New York political race years ago. But like millions of Americans, she received the hurtful news that her health insurance claim had been denied.
When Lakeland Police contacted Boston at her home, she admitted to using the “Delay, Deny, Depose” phrase and added, “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil.” She went on to say that she used the phrase, “because it’s what is in the news right now.” Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor responded that, “[Boston has] been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail.”
But what actual threat did Boston make, especially when compared to the violence corporations actually and knowingly impose upon the American people? As an attorney who represents women who are survivors of domestic violence, I cannot count how many times a survivor sought a restraining order against an abusive partner, and could not attain it because despite past abuse, and despite the new threat to “bash your face in” was too vague and unclear. What makes Blue Cross and Blue Shield so special that they deny a woman’s healthcare claim and then get her arrested for terrorism because she peacefully and verbally expressed frustration?
Likewise, as a human rights lawyer who has also literally survived violent death threats made against me and even testified in federal court against the man who threatened to kill me, I have to ask—what about her statement is a threat? The phrase “Delay, Deny, Depose” is a common insurance statement, used for decades as official policy to actively prevent having to make payouts. And the results of this policy are not hypothetical, they have been punitive, deadly, and are ongoing.
[...]
Class warfare against working people is when billion dollar insurance corporations can live by “Delay, Deny, Depose” for decades—even as their policies actually and knowingly enable tens of thousands of annual deaths—but when a working person denied healthcare merely says that exact phrase—it’s terrorism. The logical conclusion then, if we are to understand this, is that corporations ARE people when enacting policies that kill people, but NOT people when we demand arrest of the corporate executives who enact the policies that kill people, but ARE people again when a person repeats back to them the exact policies they use to kill people. Again, the hypocrisy is beyond glaring.
[...]
Understand that the point of arresting Briana Boston goes well beyond her. The BCBS CEO knows full well she alone is incapable of causing any violence or harm to their corporation. The decision to charge and arrest her with terrorism for an innocuous statement of frustration is an intimidation tactic meant to suppress dissent and force compliance. I do not advocate for violence, but I do study history. And the history of every violent economic revolution is such that when the billionaire or elite class pushed working people to the brink of human desecration and berated them until they had nothing left to lose, the only people that actually lost everything, were the elites.
Throwing Briana Boston in jail for using the words “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next” while on a call made to BCBS over being denied health insurance coverage is overkill. Thankfully, she was freed from jail.
See Also:
Ken Klippenstein: Mom Charged With Terrorism for Health Insurance "Threat"
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF TEXAS has denied THREE vital prescriptions of mine in less than two months. these corrupt, greedy people won't cover ANYTHING, and i will die early without these medications.
1. zepbound/mounjaro - BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF TEXAS denied my zepbound AND mounjaro even after being shown that my a1c dropped from 8 to 5.3, A NON-DIABETIC LEVEL, on it, because i have type 1 diabetes. apparently double diabetes is not a thing to them despite NUMEROUS studies on it and clear evidence of insulin resistance. a high a1c over time leads to numerous systemic side effects including retinopathy, high blood pressure and heart disease, gastroparesis, neuropathy, limb amputation, and SO much more. diabetics with normal a1cs are PROVEN to live longer lives, suffer fewer side effects, and ultimately cost less money to their insurance companies. but who cares; it's all about the immediate cost. they hope i'll die or my employer will switch insurance companies before it matters to them.
2. xyosted/sub-cutaneous testosterone injections - BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF TEXAS denied coverage for my testosterone KNOWING that i have NO gonads and CANNOT create my own sex hormones. i need to inject testosterone for my long-term health and i cannot do intramuscular injections, which is CLEARLY STATED IN MY MEDICAL CHART NOTES THAT WE SENT TO THE APPEALS DEPARTMENT. THEY DIDN'T EVEN READ THE NOTES. the prerequisite was that i try and fail on testosterone enanthate, and the notes from march 20th clearly state that i had tried enanthate and had pain and injection site reactions and could not use it. we sent those notes to them for the initial prior auth denial AND the appeal, and BOTH were denied. i have resorted to getting an external appeal for which i highlighted the relevant information in the notes and sent another copy. i have been off testosterone for over two months.
3. generic insulin - there is a humalog manufacturer shortage at multiple pharmacies in my area. we tried to get an override for an equivalent generic form, which you do not even need a new Rx for, and BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF TEXAS DENIED THE OVERRIDE stating that i need a prior authorization ON A FRIDAY. this takes MULTIPLE BUSINESS DAYS TO GET. luckily, a local pharmacy has 3 boxes left that they're partially filling for me, and i had a box or two at home to tide me through this debacle. i go through nearly 90 units of insulin per day. after 12-24 hours without insulin, i will slip into diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, and eventually go into a coma and die.
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD and ALL health insurance companies are CORRUPT. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CLIENTS. we're not patients to them; we're just cash cows, and when we die, they don't blink an eye, even if it's their fault.
Hey there! I wanted to share a cause that really needs our support—Briana Boston is facing a $100,000 bond that she can’t afford, and her family is depending on our help. Every donation, no matter how small, makes a significant difference for Briana and her three kids during this tough time, so please consider clicking the link below to donate or share it with others.
Bond for Briana Boston.
During a bond hearing, Boston’s lawyer said his client i… Iryna Lebedyeva needs your support for Support Briana Bos
