A 42-year-old woman from Florida has been arrested and charged after police say she threatened her health insurance provider over a recently denied medical claim, repeating a common phrase from critics of the health-care industry that had been inscribed on ammunition casings found next to slain UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.
According to an affidavit obtained by The Washington Post, Briana Boston of Lakeland contacted Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield on Tuesday after the company denied her medical insurance claim. Toward the end of the recorded phone call with her health insurer, Boston told an agent: "Delay, deny, depose. You people are next."
The words, "delay, deny, depose," reference tactics insurance companies have used to decline or limit medical claims. They were engraved on bullet casings found outside a midtown Manhattan hotel where 26-year-old Luigi Mangione is suspected of gunning down Thompson earlier this month.
Boston's Tuesday arrest comes as consumer frustration with insurance companies and the broader U.S. health-care system balloon. More than half of Americans say the quality of U.S. health care is fair or poor, while only 28 percent say health care coverage in the U.S. is excellent or good, according to a December survey conducted by Gallup. In 2023, nearly a third of Americans gave health insurance companies a poor rating, according to Gallup.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/13/briana-boston-blue-cross-insurance-threat/