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luigi mangione
And the Winners of the 2024 Shkreli Awards for Worst Healthcare Profiteering Are...
"All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation," said the head of the think tank behind the awards.
Jan 07, 2025
The "winners" of the annual Shkreli Awards—named after notorious "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli and given to the 10 "worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare"—include a Texas medical school that sold body parts of deceased people without relatives' consent, an alleged multibillion-dollar catheter scam, an oncologist who subjected patients to unnecessary cancer treatments, and a "monster monopoly" insurer.
The Shkreli Awards, now in their eighth year, are given annually by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based think tank "advocating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health." A panel of 20 expert judges—who include physicians, professors, activists, and others—determine the winners.
This year's awardees are:
10: The University of North Texas Health Science Center "dissected and distributed unclaimed bodies without properly seeking consent from the deceased or their families" and supplied the parts "to medical students as well as major for-profit ventures like Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson," reporting revealed.
9:
Baby tongue-tie cutting procedures are "being touted as a cure for everything from breastfeeding difficulties to sleep apnea, scoliosis, and even constipation"—despite any conclusive evidence that the procedure is effective.
8: Zynex Medical is a company facing scrutiny for its billing practices related to nerve stimulation devices used for pain management.
7: Insurance giant Cigna is under fire for billing a family nearly $100,000 for an infant's medevac flight.
6: Seven suppliers allegedly ran a multibillion-dollar urinary catheter billing scam that affected hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients.
5: Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico allegedly refused cancer treatment "to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance."
4: Dr. Thomas C. Weiner is a Montana oncologist who allegedly "subjected a patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for over a decade," provided "disturbingly high doses of barbiturates to facilitate death in seriously ill patients, when those patients may not have actually been close to death," and "prescribed high doses of opioids to patients that did not need them." Weiner denies any wrongdoing.
3: Pharma giant Amgen was accused of pushing 960-milligram doses of its highly toxic cancer drug Lumakras, when "a lower 240mg dose offers similar efficacy with reduced toxicity"—but costs $180,000 less per patient annually at the lower dose.
2: UnitedHealth allegedly exploited "its vast physician network to maximize profits, often at the expense of patients and clinicians," including by pressuring doctors "to reduce time with patients and to practice aggressive medical coding tactics that make patients seem as sick as possible" in order to earn higher reimbursements from the federal government."
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1: Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre was accused of orchestrating "a dramatic healthcare debacle by prioritizing private equity profits over patient care" amid "debt and sale-leaseback schemes" and a bankruptcy that "left hospitals gutted, employees laid off, and communities underserved" as he reportedly walked away "with more than $250 million over the last four years as hospitals tanked."
"All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation," Lown Institute president Dr. Vikas Saini said during the award ceremony, according toThe Guardian.
"Doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new," he added. "We're hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed."
The latest Shkreli Awards came just weeks after the brazen assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth subsidiary UnitedHealthcare. Although alleged gunman Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty, his reported manifesto—which rails against insurance industry greed—resonated with people across the country and sparked discussions about the for-profit healthcare system.
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Murder of Health Insurance CEO Exposes Depth of Rage Over Corporate Greed
The killing of Brian Thompson, as horrendous as it was, forced us to confront the injustices we’ve been taught to tolerate.
Jan 02, 2025
Call him a misguided hero or villain, but the man who killed the United Healthcare CEO struck a nerve, exposing a deep rage shared by many Americans across the political spectrum—anger at an industry that earns obscene profits from the suffering of others. His chilling act shifted the national conversation from immigration to corporate greed. Finally.
For too long, Americans have hesitated to criticize the super-rich. Chalk it up to our tribalist nature that has so many convinced that our financial struggles are caused not by wealth hoarding but by those we view as outside our clan.
History offers many examples. In Nazi Germany, Jews were blamed for a financial depression triggered by the American stock market crash. My parents and grandmother barely escaped; many in my family did not.
Decades later, Ronald Reagan handed the wealthy the largest tax cuts in U.S. history while vilifying the “Welfare Queen” who leached from the feeding trough of “Big Government.”
This racist caricature was meant to distract from policies that began a 40-year transfer of wealth from the 90 percent to the one percent, producing the largest wealth gap in a century. It’s a story about the undeserving poor vs. the deserving rich.
Today, we face a similar narrative. Immigrants are blamed both for stealing jobs and freeloading despite their essential role in propping up our economy given our shrinking workforce. After being fed a steady anti-immigration media diet, it’s not surprising that nearly four out of five Republicans support placing undocumented immigrants in internment camps.
The greater the wealth imbalance, the more the wealthy need to distort the truth. They peddle the long-discredited Trickle-Down theory, claiming that what benefits them benefits us all. But rising tides don’t lift all boats when some people have no boat at all, or when their boats are sinking because the superyachts are capsizing small craft in their massive wake.
We have to stop believing that billionaires have working people’s interests at heart. In fact, they’re mutually exclusive. A gangbuster stock market depends on keeping wages low and unions banished. Outsized campaign contributions ensure that corporate taxes are slashed and regulations meant to keep us healthy, safe, and not impoverished are gutted.
It makes complete sense that the wealth lobby exploits fears of “socialism” to keep people voting against their own interests. It’s no coincidence the U.S. remains the only developed nation without universal healthcare. This is where our anger should be directed.
But redirecting anger is not easy. Six of the richest US corporations control 90 percent of our media and their profits depend on algorithms and news coverage designed to keep us divided, misinformed, and distracted from this billionaire plunder. “You know the media has failed,” says essayist Rebecca Solnit, “when people are more concerned that a trans girl might play on a softball team than that the climate crisis will destroy our planet.”
During the next four years it will be critical to get people to see through this deception. When we start feeling the fallout from a second Trump term, the scapegoating will intensify. Tariffs, more tax cuts for the rich, and the loss of immigrant labor will send prices soaring and balloon the deficit. Many may lose healthcare, Social Security, and worker protections. The wealth lobby will no doubt point fingers elsewhere.
Change is possible though. As a grant writer for 30 years, I’ve seen campaigns shift public opinion on issues like marriage equality, net neutrality, and climate change. Recently, several states won historic economic reforms after decades of trying. In Massachusetts, RiseUpMass won the nation’s sixth millionaire’s tax by debunking claims it would harm retirees.
In Washington state, the Balance Our Tax Code, a coalition of over 80 diverse groups, from home health aide workers to members of the Yakima Nation, was able pass a capital gains tax, calling out Amazon and Microsoft for avoiding their share of taxes. “The biggest lesson we learned,” said campaign communications manager Reiny Cohen “was that when we come together and tell the same story, lawmakers have no choice but to listen.”
In other words, changing minds requires a coordinated echo chamber. The #MeToo movement showed how the right framing, amplified through the media, can shift perspectives and galvanize action. Imagine if we could help more people connect the dots between stagnant wages, failing schools, a burning planet, unaffordable housing, and the greed of the one percent.
But the message must go beyond bashing billionaires. It must present a compelling vision of what is possible if we stand up against the ultra rich. The We Make Minnesota coalition was able to pass a tax increase on the wealthiest one percent by countering anti-Somali rhetoric with a “We’re Better Off Together” message. Instead of using a “Stop the Cuts” framework, the campaign emphasized the subsidized health care, free preschool, and tuition-free college programs the state is now able to offer.
This isn’t about destroying capitalism. A healthy balance between a free market and protective government is essential. But when the richest among us prioritize profit over the well-being of the majority, it’s no longer about politics—it’s about survival.
The murder of the United Healthcare CEO, as horrendous as it was, forced us to confront the injustices we’ve been taught to tolerate. This moment must unite us against the true enemies of the American dream: unchecked greed and exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. We can either remain manipulated by scapegoating and fear or see the truth and demand change. Only then can we build a society where no one feels driven to such desperate measures again.
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Nearly 7 in 10 Americans Say Insurers' Greed Played Role in UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing
"Believing the health insurance industry is at least partly responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is not some fringe position," wrote one journalist.
Dec 28, 2024
In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in early December, some political observers were taken aback by the public response to the event, which included morbid humor and expressions of "Schadenfreude," in the words of one woman who had battled an insurance company to secure treatment for her mother's cancer.
But according to a new poll released by NORC at the University of Chicago Friday night, the belief that the for-profit health insurance industry's business practices were largely to blame for the apparent targeted killing of Thompson is far from a fringe viewpoint.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents placed a "great deal or moderate amount" of blame on healthcare coverage denials by insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, for Thompson's killing.
Sixty-seven percent said exorbitant profits made by health insurers were to blame.
UnitedHealthcare, which reported $16 billion in profits last year, has garnered outrage for its claims denial practices. A Senate investigation earlier this year found the company was one of three that were intentionally denying claims made by nursing home patients who had Medicare Advantage plans and had suffered falls and strokes, in order to increase profits.
The company is also facing a class-action lawsuit over its use of algorithms to deny care.
Last year, a Commonwealth Fund survey found the 17% of Americans had been told by an insurance company that a medical claim was denied, and the poll suggested many patients and doctors feel powerless to stop companies like United from denying them care; more than half said they and their physicians did not challenge the insurers' decision.
That poll matched the results of the NORC survey released on Friday, in which 15% of respondents said they had had a claim denied.
The poll was released the same day that NBC Newspublished an investigation showing that cancer patients are disproportionately affected by claim denials and insurers' requirements that they obtain "prior authorization" in order to receive life-saving care, an arduous process that can delay treatment and allow their condition to worsen.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that 22% of cancer patients did not receive treatment their doctors had prescribed because of denials or prior authorization requirements.
A survey of oncologists in 2022 found that 42% of prior authorizations were delayed by more than one business day, and 14% of the delays had a serious adverse impact on the patient.
The patients experienced "disease progression" 80% of the time and "loss of life" 36% of the time.
Insurers are increasingly relying on prior authorizations to delay or deny care for cancer patients, a 2023 study found. The number of nonspecialty oncology drugs that required prior authorization rose from 16% in 2010 to 78% in 2020.
NBC News told the story of one patient, Tracy Pike, who died after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois declined to cover a $40,000 treatment for Stage 4 stomach cancer—surgery and intensive chemotherapy—that had been recommended by his doctor.
Citing the findings of a company doctor—who was an obstetrician-gynecologist, not an oncologist—Blue Cross ruled the treatment was "experimental, investigational, and unproven," even though it is routinely prescribed for cancer patients.
Journalist Ken Klippenstein noted that the NORC poll included a nuance that was "sorely lacking in major media coverage" after Thompson's death, which at times suggested that people who acknowledged the insurance industry's deadly practices were "supporting" the fatal shooting.
The poll found that 78% of people believed the person who shot Thompson outside a hotel in Manhattan bore "a great deal" or a "moderate amount" of blame for the killing.
"Now compare that with the tsunami of corporate media op-eds and pundits expressing the sparkling insight that murder is wrong," wrote Klippenstein. "Yeah, we know. Episodes like these really show you how much contempt these elite media organs have for the public, which they apparently see as helpless children in need of a preschool level moral lesson."
"As the NORC poll shows, the vast majority of people know that, yes, of course murder is wrong—they just also happen to think there's more to the story than that," he continued. "And they're right: How can you have an honest discussion about any of this without addressing the Moloch-like industry that profits from denying people healthcare?"
But as Klippenstein wrote on Thursday, those who took part in that "honest discussion" in the days after Thompson's killing were branded as "extremists" not just by the media, but by law enforcement.
Days after the killing, Klippenstein wrote, the New York Police Department circulated an intelligence report on the suspected gunman, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione—but the report also included warnings about "ordinary people" who expressed sympathy for Mangione online.
"Warning of 'a wide range of extremists' that 'may view Mangione as a martyr,' the report's title singles out 'disdain for corporate greed," wrote Klippenstein, noting that the document was circulated to law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies nationally.
But as the latest polling shows, he wrote, "believing the health insurance industry is at least partly responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is not some fringe position."
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