Ivy League graduates don’t typically trash years of expensive cultivation at private schools and on the ski slopes of Aspen by off-ing a guy in midtown Manhattan. Not unless they have a major break from sanity. Pain, hallucinogens, and the terrible anomie impacting all young men today created a toxic stew in Luigi Mangione’s brain, which led to tragedy for a middle-aged executive and this young man who is looking at life behind bars. 

All that is true. It is possible to hold another truth: Health insurance companies ration services and make people’s lives miserable. This week, ProPublica published an exposé of UnitedHealth — the company at the crosshairs of Luigi’s rage — which has been denying payments for ABA for autistic children. This problem is widespread despitestate legislation that mandates coverage for autism. 

Millions of parents, some in very desperate straights, must spend weeks in a phone tree hell begging in vain to get coverage for basic therapy for their autistic children. Billion-dollar insurance industries deny therapy for autistic children — it’s hard to think of worse villains. Financial support for autism — both at schools and therapists’ offices — must come from the federal government. The needs are too great.

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