A 16-year-old boy died of a drug overdose after his health insurer allegedly refused to pay for him to go to a residential substance abuse program – an “outrageous” decision the late teen’s heartbroken family say killed their son.

In a scathing federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent, the Tennessee couple accuse UnitedHealthcare of, among other things, gross negligence, recklessness, and intentional misconduct, arguing the company breached its duty to provide their child with the “medically necessary” inpatient addiction treatment he needed.

About two months before “John Doe” died, UnitedHealthcare sent his legal guardians a “callous denial letter” in response to their “desperate pleas” to get Doe a bed at a recovery facility that would also furnish much-needed psychotherapy, according to the suit.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Eventually people get tired of being pushed around. You might not feel that way if you were in a similar situation.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Right, that was the point I was implying. One murder doesn’t justify another. When there are thousands, it’s not really murder anymore. It’s self defense. I recognize that I wasn’t clear, though.

            • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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              16 hours ago

              Many people feel that any murder is bad. And while I would agree, there is a point where it’s worse to do nothing about multiple murders.

              Violate the social contract enough and that social contract requires the rest to stop your violation.

      • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca
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        18 hours ago

        I think that OP was saying that while one murder does not justify reciprocal action, thousands of murders just might justify one teensy little shooting of one rich asshole.

    • Albbi@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      It’s looking more and more like a trolley problem. Luigi pulled the lever.

    • flandish@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      some feel like one can stop the others from happening, just for the record.