Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America Highlight

The Bayonne doctors in New Jersey—a state that had seen ten hospitals close since 2007, and another six file for bankruptcy, a little slice of the national hospital network that might easily be described as the front lines of the death of American health care—pointed this little issue out to the insurer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. No soap. “We explained it, said, you know, we would have killed the guy if we’d operated. But their physician’s assistant upheld the denial,” Eileen Popola, the hospital’s case manager later explained.