Happy New Year? It is day 29 since Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah began denying coverage for a critical life-saving cancer drug in my wife Raven's breast cancer treatment.

So I'm not happy in this new year. I'm sad, mostly. Sad for what we call "healthcare" in this country, which is neither health nor care. I didn't realize it had gotten this bad until we lived it ourselves.

It doesn't matter if your treatment is prescribed by your doctor with their letter of medical necessity.

It doesn't matter if it is fully FDA approved for your specific use case, and has been for years.

It doesn't matter if it follows every clinical guideline in the world established as the standard of care.

It doesn't matter if numerous clinical trials clearly show benefits to health outcomes and quality of life.

All of that doesn't matter, because if your insurance company wants to deny coverage, they can and will. And there is little you can do about it but appeal and hope they change their minds.

But why would they? They make more money if they deny claims, especially for expensive drugs and treatments. And there is little accountability for errors or even outright fraud.

So they will feign ignorance of all of the above. They will invent arbitrary and capricious grounds for denial. They will pretend that it isn't the standard of care, that it is "investigational," or "experimental," or isn't "medically necessary," or has "unknown benefits." They will do this because they can, with little to no consequence or punishment. Investors will applaud and stuff more of their money into the system, rewarding this behavior.

Because even if you take them to court, which is designed to favor insurers, and if they are found guilty of unethical and/or even illegal criminal behavior, in ERISA cases they cannot be sued for punitive damages or emotional distress damages, only the cost of the treatment itself, so there is no incentive to avoid bad behavior.

So they will do it again, and again, and again, and again, because it is worth losing a few to win the majority of cases (and most denied claims are not even appealed, let alone litigated). It's great for the bottom line, exchanging lives for profits. They couldn't care less about your health. That's their big lie.

That is the hell of a "healthcare" system we have in this country. It's a disgrace. It's a national scandal, as the late Jimmy Carter recently wrote.

And Trump is only going to make it that much worse over the next 4 years, dismantling ACA, potentially causing millions to lose what little health coverage they have, cutting Social Security and Medicare which will reduce benefits for low-income people and retirees, which will only benefit the rich and billionaires like himself, and he'll probably do worse things we haven't even begun to imagine.

This is the USA in 2025.

It's sad. Really really sad.

So even as we celebrate the new year, we should be ashamed for our country, for our healthcare, for health insurance, for human life, for humanity, for this heartless system we have built up that idolizes greed, wealth, capitalism, and cruelty towards the least among us. We crucify Christ afresh, every day, right here in the USA. That's American "Christianity."

Where's the hope? I'm sorry, I don't have much today. I think things will probably get much worse before they get better, much much worse. We learn by the things which we suffer, and suffer we will, until we decide that we won't tolerate it anymore, until our suffering becomes unbearable and we won't tolerate this brutality a second longer. Until we live this suffering ourselves, each one of us.

And then we may radically change the system to be more compassionate and humane, recognizing health as a universal human right, as every other developed nation on Earth, and that what we do for our neighbor we actually do for our Self.

Maybe some day. I hope for that day.