Above photo: Protesters outside United Healthcare headquarters, Minnetonka, Minnesota, May 2023.
Normally when someone is shot dead, human beings feel sad for the victim. But in the case of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, killed before dawn on the streets of Manhattan on Dec. 4, a large majority of public comments are that empathy is “out of network.”
For example, Anthony Zenkus, a lecturer at the Columbia School of Social Work, posted on X: “Today, we mourn the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down … wait, I’m sorry — today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.” (theguardian.com, Dec. 7)
On TikTok a woman described being nine months pregnant when her one-year-old daughter had a medical emergency: “We sat in the hospital for three days, because UnitedHealthcare refused to approve the transfer via ambulance from the hospital where we live to another state. And at that point, I was ready to just get in my car and take her there myself. But UnitedHealthcare told us if we left the hospital by our own will, and it wasn’t via ambulance, they were not going to cover her at the next hospital we went to.”
Other posts quoted a Woody Guthrie song, “Pretty Boy Floyd:” “Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.” Responses to UnitedHealthcare’s Facebook post bemoaning the slaying of Thompson included over 90,000 “laughing” emojis.
These are all expressions of widespread mass hatred of the for-profit health care industry. It appears that this hatred may also have motivated the shooter; words written on bullet casings found at the site included “delay” and “deny.”
UnitedHealthcare stands out among all the greedy health insurers for denying the largest percentage of claims: about one in three. These refusals have led to tens of thousands of deaths as well as preventable illnesses and financial hardship for those who live after their health care needs are denied.
Profit system is to blame
Thompson collected over $10 million in earnings in 2023, and his company took in $32.4 billion in profit. (www.sec.gov, Jan. 12) Understandably, many people were hoping that Luigi Mangione, the alleged shooter, would not get caught.
But whatever the alleged shooter’s fate, the crimes of the for-profit health insurance industry will continue. Every claim denied means money in the pockets of UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the other health insurance barons. The root of the problem is capitalism, a system that prioritizes corporate profits over human lives.
What a contrast to this murderous system is socialist health care in Cuba! No one is denied health care in Cuba. Infant mortality is lower in Cuba than in the U.S., and there are eight doctors for every 1,000 Cuban people compared to 2.5 doctors for every 1,000 people in the U.S. (bbc.com, Dec. 13, 2015)
Fighting for a single-payer “Medicare for All”-type system is important, as that would be a big improvement over what exists right now in the U.S. Winning that struggle will not be easy, as even the modest Affordable Care Act is being threatened by the incoming Trump administration.
But what is really needed to put an end to the profit-gouging by the likes of Thompson and company is a socialist system, where human needs come before profits and health care is a guaranteed human right.