Chapter 474 - 218: Prisoner 2
"Because his death gives thousands upon thousands of patients a glimmer of hope."
"It makes those high and mighty insurance companies feel fear."
"It lets them know that if you push someone too far, even a rabbit will bite."
Luigi smiled.
"I saw it on the news."
"The insurance companies are revising their terms. They’re starting to give in, starting to pay out on cases they previously denied."
"That’s enough."
"I’ve achieved my goal."
"As for whether I live or die, go to prison or get executed..."
Luigi shrugged.
"That’s not important."
"Now, it’s their turn to come collect."
"No."
Leo shook his head.
"You’re wrong, Luigi."
"The accounts aren’t settled yet."
"And you’ve miscalculated the most important point."
"You think it’s over just because you die?"
"You think your death is a victory?"
"That’s too naive."
Leo said, "If you die, how will they define you?"
"A madman."
"An antisocial freak."
"The media will dig into your private life and invent stories about you. They’ll say you had a traumatic childhood, that you have violent tendencies, that you’re just some poor sap brainwashed by extremist ideas."
"They’ll turn you into a joke, a cautionary tale."
"And after you’re dead, what will those insurance companies do?"
"They’ll wait for the heat to die down, for people to forget you."
"Then, they’ll change those newly revised terms right back."
"They’ll deny claims and exploit people with a vengeance."
"Because they’ll know that no one will ever dare to fight back like you did again."
"Your death will become a tool they use to intimidate everyone else."
Leo planted his hands on the table, his eyes boring into Luigi.
"Is this the outcome you want?"
"Is this the great bargain you bought with your life?"
Luigi’s expression wavered slightly.
He wasn’t a prophet, of course, and he couldn’t predict the future.
But the scenario Leo described—a future where his voice was completely erased, where even his motives were distorted—was more terrifying to him than death.
The narrative is controlled by the living, by those with money and access to the media.
Dead men don’t talk.
The dead can only be dressed up by the living, letting them paint bloodshed as madness and twist resistance into pathology.
Still, he did his best to maintain his outward calm.
It was the first lesson he had learned from those financial titans: never let your emotions show. Even if the card table is on fire, you pretend you’re just warming your hands.
Luigi looked up, meeting Leo’s gaze.
"Are you threatening me?"
"I don’t threaten dead men," Leo said. "A dead man has no value. He can’t speak, can’t vote, can’t even be used as a bargaining chip. That’s why I only make deals with the living."
"Luigi, your life has value to me."
"But your reputation is worth even more."
Luigi paused, stunned.
"Reputation?" He gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I’m a murderer, a terrorist. My reputation is a joke."
"No. Those are just the labels they’ve slapped on you."
Leo shook his head.
"In the eyes of the common people, you’re a hero. In the eyes of the patients denied by insurance companies, you’re an avenger."
"That is reputation."
"And right now, I need that reputation."
Leo took a neatly folded document from his inner coat pocket and pushed it across the table to Luigi.
It was the draft of a plan he had just printed: the "Citizen Health Mutual Aid Alliance."
"Take a look at this."
Puzzled, Luigi took the document and quickly scanned its contents in the dim light.
His pupils began to dilate, his fingers unconsciously tightening their grip on the paper.
"Citizen Health Mutual Aid Alliance... collective bargaining... volume purchasing..."
Luigi muttered to himself.
"You... you want to bypass the insurance companies?"
"That’s right."
Leo’s gaze sharpened.
"Insurance companies are Vampires. They not only suck the patients dry, but they also bleed the city’s finances dry. The premiums we pay them every year end up becoming yachts and mansions for their executives."
"This system is rotten to the core. Patching it up is useless."
"The only way is to build a new system."
"I’m going to bundle the purchasing power of all 300,000 citizens of Pittsburgh, negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies, and settle directly with the hospitals."
"I’m going to use the power of group purchasing to bring those sky-high drug prices down."
"That’s my plan."
Luigi lowered the document and stared at Leo in disbelief.
"But..." Luigi’s voice trembled. "Do you have any idea whose cake you’re messing with? This isn’t just a matter of a few hundred million US Dollars; you’re challenging the entire industry’s unwritten rules."
"Those insurance companies will go insane. They’ll use every resource they have to crush you."
"I know," Leo admitted calmly.
"Pfizer, United Health, Blue Cross... I know them all by heart."
"If I play by the normal rules, I’m a dead man."
"They’ll slander me in the media, sue me in court, and even pass legislation in Washington to ban this kind of Mutual Aid Alliance."
"That’s why I need a weapon."
Leo stared hard at Luigi.
"I need public opinion. I need rage. I need the attention of the entire United States."
"I need a catalyst that will get everyone talking about medical justice."
"I need a super-advertisement that even the most politically apathetic person can’t help but glance at."
Leo pointed at Luigi.