Chris McNaighton was an athlete in college and led an active life until tragedy struck: he was diagnosed with a painful, debilitating disease called ulcerative colitis. He was so disabled by its symptoms that he became housebound. After trying many treatments and doctors, he finally went to the Mayo Clinic, where a specialist prescribed a mix of drugs that were very expensive but saved his life.

Chris was covered by his parents’ insurance; they were both faculty members at Penn State. Chris enrolled at Penn State, so he was covered as a student as well.

UnitedHealth did not like paying the cost of Chris’s treatment. It was $2 million a year. It had Chris’s claims reviewed by doctors who denied them and said he could do with a lower dose, which would cost less. The doctor at Mayo responded that lower doses were ineffective.

Chris’s parents sued UnitedHealth.

Chris’s story was told by ProPublica.

It begins:

Christopher McNaughton suffered from a crippling case of ulcerative colitis — an ailment that caused him to develop severe arthritis, debilitating diarrhea, numbing fatigue and life-threatening blood clots. His medical bills were running nearly $2 million a year.

United had flagged McNaughton’s case as a “high dollar account,” and the company was reviewing whether it needed to keep paying for the expensive cocktail of drugs crafted by a Mayo Clinic specialist that had brought McNaughton’s disease under control after he’d been through years of misery.