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U.S. federal judge rules Alabama city must allow gay pride float at Christmas paradeMexico cracks down on drugs and migrants amid Trump tariff threatFederal judge rules Alabama city must allow gay pride float at Christmas parade

Magness Blake is a longtime philanthropist, businesswoman and Arabian horse trainer. Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.AP News Summary at 4:37 a.m. EST

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By Bradley Schnure Like many people, I’ve been following news of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson with great interest. Some people on social media have tried to glorify the alleged shooter, calling him a hero. Others have attempted to justify the crime, saying the insurance CEO deserved payback for his company killing countless customers through denied claims for coverage. As a former long-time employee of the New Jersey Legislature, I believe targeting anyone in an extrajudicial way is wrong, regardless of how despicable we may think them to be. In a nation of laws, we cannot begin to believe that it’s appropriate to seek our own justice from the barrel of a gun. I believe it’s nothing less than tragic that our system of health care in this country is so broken that so many people seem to think otherwise. Despite recent events, I believe we have reason to be hopeful, but I fully understand the bitterness that got us here. That’s because I’m also a 48-year-old Stage IV lung cancer patient with a folder full of my own denial letters to show for it. Over the past several years, I’ve been denied care many times, including a scan requested by a doctor that likely would have caught my cancer at an earlier stage before it spread. I have written on social media about my experience with eviCore , a third-party service provider that many insurers use to review and increasingly deny pre-authorization requests from doctors. In my case, I visited a string of specialists over close to a year to try to understand the source of a persistent cough. In the summer of 2022, my ENT came frustratingly close to finding my lung cancer when it was still curable. He requested a simple, relatively inexpensive CT scan that eviCore promptly denied. He challenged the denial and provided his clinical notes along with an additional explanation detailing the need, only to be denied a second time. Ultimately, I gave up trying to get that scan approved. I didn’t realize how serious those denials would prove to be until a full year later. In July of 2023, my health quickly deteriorated over several days. My wife rushed me to the emergency room as I gasped for breath. Thankfully, CT scans in the emergency room don’t require pre-authorization. As a result of that scan, I quickly learned from a pair of attentive ER doctors that I had “metastatic lung disease.” After a few more tests over several days, I was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, which resulted in my unexpected retirement from the Legislature. The saddest moment of my life, by far, was lying in a hospital bed and telling my young children that I loved them and might not have long to live. It was heartbreaking to see the tears in their eyes as they tried to understand that their dad might die. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. Sadly, too many other people have similar stories, as recently reported by ProPublica . How many of those horror stories could have been prevented if doctors didn’t have to beg insurance companies for permission to diagnose and treat their own patients? It’s a simple question that deserves an answer. Here in New Jersey, Senator Jon Bramnick (R-21) and Senate President Nick Scutari (D-22) have proposed a solution. They sponsor a bipartisan bill (S-2257) that would prohibit pre-authorization requirements for medical tests, procedures, and prescription drugs that are covered under people’s plans. I don’t know if that’s a complete solution to a very complex problem, but it would amount to a significant step forward for both patients and their doctors. Every three months, I need to get a CT scan of my body and MRI of my brain to track the progression of my disease. And just about every three months, I get a letter from eviCore denying one scan or the other. My cancer center has teams of administrators who do nothing but appeal denials on behalf of their patients, including me. The same is true for just about every doctor’s office and hospital across the country. Driven by the massive cost of managing insurance pre-authorizations for standard services, it’s no wonder the United States has the highest cost for medical administration in the world, nearly three times more than anyone else. If any good might come from the death of Brian Thompson, I hope it’s that our nation finally begins a long-overdue discussion about solving this problem. There are lots of lurking pitfalls to be sure, including the challenge of reducing the potential for lawsuits that drives many doctors to practice defensive medicine by ordering extra tests that insurers say are unnecessary. We also need to be careful not to sacrifice the parts of the system that are working well today, namely the research and development of new drugs and therapies. I have ALK-positive lung cancer, which is an oncogenic cancer that is most common in younger non-smokers. It’s vastly different from other, more common types of lung cancer, which is why standard lung cancer treatments usually fail quickly. In fact, just 15 years ago, I likely would have died within a few weeks of my diagnosis. That’s how fast practical research has advanced in recent years. Since the pandemic, doctors are reporting a spike in many rare cancers, such as mine, among people of all ages. Like many other people with a variety of diseases, I’m dependent on a recently developed medication that, unfortunately, won’t be effective in treating me forever. And like many others, the eventual length of my life will depend on the continued willingness of profit-seeking businesses to continue their massive investment in the significant costs associated with research, development, and clinical trials. For me, and millions of others, health care today is a race against the clock. Celebrating a killer won’t extend my life or anyone else’s, but enacting common-sense legislative reforms almost certainly will. The author is the former Communications Director for the New Jersey Senate Republican Office. He served the Legislature for more than 22 years prior to his diagnosis with Stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com . Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion . Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook .