'Delay' and 'Deny': Even Health Insurance Companies Agree Prior Authorization Process Is Broken | KQED

""I have no peripheral vision at all. It's like looking through a straw, and what I see is semi-clear in one eye and completely blurry in the other," she said."

""I fall, I trip on things all the time, even in my own house. I'm obviously not flying anymore, not driving a car anymore.""

""It really highlighted for the country this amount of anger," said Miranda Yaver, health policy professor at the University of Pittsburgh."

""And I think that placed pressure on state legislatures.""

McIntyre, a 51-year-old former tattoo artist, private pilot and NASA research assistant, is now legally blind with no peripheral vision and severe blurring that prevents flying and driving. Patients and physicians have long pressed state lawmakers to rein in insurers' power to review or refuse physician-ordered services through prior authorization. The December 2024 assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, with bullets etched "delay" and "deny," intensified public outrage and refocused momentum for reform. In 2025, at least 31 states enacted bipartisan laws restricting prior authorization. Lawmakers described personal struggles with prior authorization during hearings, and insurers faced mounting political pressure.

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