Highlight: 6:17.734

This week I wanted to share my thoughts on everything that is going on with Luigi Mangione and UnitedHealthcare. Most people already know the story but what I think few understand is the wider context of people’s anger at health insurance companies and they’re lifting up of someone they see as a vigilante.

Under Obamacare more people are insured than ever before. It getting passed meant companies could not deny you based on preexisting conditions or family history. Even with the coverage the actual likelihood of you paying into your health insurance and actually being insured when you need it is unreasonably low.

Doctors, labs, and hospitals are out of network depending on who you have and whether you have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Elevance, CVS Health, Kaiser Foundation, Humana, Centene Group, Cigna, or health care services corporation you are not immune to the possibility of having to pay more out of pocket than you can afford and being saddled with bills you have to fight with your insurance provider over.

All of us have to figure out a way forward. Some believe that it will be through legislation that curbed insurance companies ability to deny and delay claims until the problem, or the person, goes away.

Luigi has been hailed or condemned on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook by what feels like everyone in the United States.

Josh Johnson is an Emmy-nominated writer, stand-up comedian, actor, and NAACP award-winner from Louisiana by way of Chicago. He was just named as the newest correspondent on Comedy Central’s Emmy & Peabody Award-winning program The Daily Show where he was previously a writer for the past six years. Johnson is also a former writer and performer on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he made his late-night debut in 2017. In addition, he is Comedy Central’s ‘most watched comedian ever’ with 40M+ views to date across their platforms.

As a stand-up, Johnson headlines theaters, clubs, colleges, and festivals around the world. In 2015, he was named one of Comedy Central’s “Comic to Watch”, in 2016 a “New Face” at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, in 2018 the winner of the “New York’s Funniest” competition at the New York Comedy Festival and in 2021 he was named one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch”.

Johnson’s most recent stand-up special, Josh Johnson: Up Here Killing Myself, premiered on Peacock earlier this year to rave reviews touting Josh as a “naturally gifted story teller”. Comedy Central released Johnson’s first hour-long special #(Hashtag) in June 2021.

Johnson’s self-released comedy and music mixtape album Elusive, was described by Vanyaland as “live stand-up observational humor with musical compositions. Both elements wade in and out of political and social waters between the two “arcs” of the multi-genre epic". Johnson also co-hosts the weekly podcast, The Josh Johnson Show (with fellow stand-up Logan Nielsen).

Johnson’s other credits include, CONAN (TBS), @Midnight, Kevin Hart’s Hart of The City, The New Negroes, and This Week at The Comedy Cellar on Comedy Central and @fter Midnight on CBS.

Johnson lives in New York, but you can catch him on his Sophomore Tour across the country.^[1]