NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - In the days since Luigi Mangione was charged with murder for gunning down a top health insurance executive, more than a thousand donations have poured into an online fundraiser for his legal defense, with messages supporting him and even celebrating the crime.
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Most of the messages on the crowd-sourced fundraising site GiveSendGo reflect a deep frustration shared by many Americans over the U.S. healthcare system - where some treatments and reimbursements can be denied to patients depending on their insurance coverage - as well as broader anger over rising income inequality and soaring executive pay.
That’s because the costs are negotiated centrally, so healthcare is relatively cheap even if you have to pay for it. Some European countries are even having problems because some Americans found out that it’s often much cheaper to pay for a plane ticket, a nice hotel, and the treatment costs fully out of their own pocket in Europe than having the same treatment in the US even with insurance.
I have a friend who’s contemplating this. They can fly over as a couple and have a few weeks of vacation, get the operation and still have money left.