At 6:44 a.m., on Dec. 5, 2024, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in New York City. Americans responded with a combination of apathy, condemnation and outrage, as the political climate heated up and those across the political spectrum discussed the assassination — but most of all, its motivation. The widely publicized event unified the millions of Americans who have suffered from the health insurance climate in America and sparked debates over the privatization of healthcare.
The nation took to the social media app X, with different accounts posting satirical comments about Brian Thompson’s death. One tweet reads, “I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers.” Another, “Does he have a history of shootings? Denied coverage.” While those comments are crass, they underscore the public’s frustration with the current health insurance landscape.

As of 2023, roughly 25 million Americans under 65 do not have health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The consequence of not having health insurance in America is paying out of pocket for every doctor’s visit, emergency room trip, bottle of medication, surgery or operation that one may medically require to live. Per year, uninsured Americans will spend 38 percent more on healthcare than those with any sort of coverage, the National Institute of Health (NIH) reports.
Ironically, those who aren’t insured are typically below the poverty line — meaning that some of the poorest citizens in America pay the most for healthcare; if they can’t, they could be among the 26,000 people who die each year due to lack of health insurance, according to the NIH.
Policy shifts

With new proposals from the Trump administration, the number of people who are uninsured might reach an all-time high. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was initially championed by President Obama in 2010 to expand healthcare coverage, currently provides insurance for Americans who fall below the poverty line or have medical disabilities through Medicaid, and also protects the elderly through Medicare. The Trump administration intends to cut the ACA’s funding by 90 percent, complicate and shorten the enrollment process and dismantle the protections for marginalized communities that President Biden added during his term.
These measures, particularly the proposed budget cuts, will save Congress $880 billion. They will also likely jeopardize the health of 72 million poor and disabled Americans.
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) estimates that anywhere from 750,000 and 2 million people will lose ACA coverage if the new regulation passes. It will also prevent “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, from accessing public insurance.
Head of the mathematics department Heather Curtaz underlines the potential ramifications of these policies.
“I read an article in the New York Times explaining [Trump’s plan to liquidate Medicaid], and I thought, ‘It really is a death sentence to be poor in this country, now more than ever,’” Curtaz said.
Proposed regulations also enable insurers to stop covering gender-affirming care. One anonymous student, who will be referred to as Lucas, is a senior and has his own concerns about the prospective policies as a transgender person, especially on what they implicate for genderqueer youth.
“I think that a lot of legislation being pushed against transgender youth is very scary… I feel afraid for myself and my peers for opportunities that were available to [us] five years ago or currently. It feels like we’re going back in progress rather than moving forward,” Lucas said.
These developments have led Lucas to question what steps he should take now, in case of the outcome that he must protect himself in the future.
“I’ve had thoughts like, ‘Do I need to stock up [on gender-affirming care] now? Do I need to figure this out now before my options go away?’” Lucas said. “[I’ve] even thought, ‘Do I need to look for under-the-table sources of hormone blockers or gender-affirming care?’”
Beyond the current proposed cuts and amendments, if the government were to repeal the ACA altogether, the age cap for family insurance could regress from 26 back to 18 — meaning, students could be at risk of getting permanently booted from their parents’ insurance as soon as they turn 18. Currently, the ACA allows the safety net of family insurance to protect young adults until they are 26, but if the ACA is dismantled, young adults will have to fund their own insurance starting at age 18.
Even while these changes remain speculative, Curtaz explained why students should be aware of the potential policy shift.
“Teenagers need to recognize that this could immediately impact them as soon as they turn 18,” Curtaz said.
Once off of family plans, 18-year-olds could pay up to $600 a month for a health insurance premium if they don’t qualify for any public subsidies or have insurance through a job, which most teenagers don’t.
Healthcare’s role

Infographic by Lynette Ki

Despite the cost, access to healthcare remains paramount. As for Curtaz, she has had school-subsidized insurance since she began working at Redwood nearly 30 years ago. This position has defined her experience with healthcare, enabling her to undergo medical procedures with minimal personal cost.
“I recognize that I’m in a place of privilege in this — that I have health insurance [through working at Redwood]. I’ve made decisions in my life, my career, to not leave [Redwood] simply because of the healthcare,” Curtaz said. “Last year, I had surgery. I think I paid $150. I have no idea what healthcare costs. Because my insurance is so good, I don’t have to know.”
Though expensive, health insurance is a necessary expenditure. Hospitals require a substantial financial base to function, especially given new — and costly — medical technological advancements.
Redwood parent Julia Vinogradsky has been a respiratory therapist in Daly City at Seton Medical Center for 18 years. She explained how hospitals’ need for profit can interfere with patient welfare.
“At times, hospitals focus on profits over patient well-being, which happens more than people think. At the end of the day, hospitals are still a business. Even if they say they’re nonprofit, hospitals cannot afford to lose money, so a lot of the time they’ll still prioritize financials over focusing on patient well-being — [and] that’s really hard to see,” Vinogradsky said.

According to Mike Marrero, a Redwood parent and former employee of the insurance company Blue Shield Blue Cross, healthcare costs are rising — a fact that insurance companies are not able to control.
“A lot of the articles in the media talk about how the insurance companies are making so much money, that they’re evil for profiting off of the healthcare system and that they’re not a beneficial part of the system,” Marrero said. “[But] the cost of healthcare isn’t high because of insurance companies. The cost of healthcare is high because the cost of paying those providers is high.”
For Vinogradsky, the high costs of providing healthcare are clear, but she also empathizes with the millions of Americans whose insurance claims are denied each year. That number was about 37 million in 2023 alone, according to KFF.
“[In healthcare,] there’s always the aspect of not having accessible and equal care for everyone. Despite all of the advancements in medical technology and treatments, many people, especially those that come from low-income, minority communities [or] rural areas, face difficulties [in] getting the care that they need because of financial problems [or] insurance limitations,” Vinogradsky said.

Often, as Curtaz points out, those who can barely afford healthcare without insurance are forced to make difficult financial decisions.
“There are so many families, even in this community, that are making decisions every day based on their health insurance,” Curtaz said. “Do you take your kid [to the doctor] when they’re sick or not? These are life and death decisions that people make every day because they don’t have health insurance.”
Even though the landscape of American healthcare remains unstable at times and challenging at others, Marrero highlights the important role that health insurance companies play in allowing millions of Americans to access crucial treatments.
“Helping people in their time of greatest need was inspiring and was part of the satisfaction of doing the job,” Marrero said. “When you know that you can help a mom and a dad go home with their newborn baby alive and healthy after a neonatal intensive care unit (ICU), that [is] pretty cool.”
Similarly, Vinogradsky has found meaning in connecting with patients beyond just administering medical care.
“A lot of the time, there are no cures or treatments for certain diseases. But at the end of the day, you still feel like you did your best and that you were able to help somebody, whether you were able to treat them or not — if you gave them compassion and care, and took the time to talk to them and hear them out,” Vinogradsky said. “Sure, not all medications can treat things. But you as a human being, working in a hospital and trying to help people — there is more than one way of helping people. That’s what keeps me going.”