The December 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York sparked a global backlash against the privatised health insurance industry’s unfettered greed.
Thompson, who previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and reportedly earned more than US$10 million a year at United, was gunned down as he walked to the Hilton in mid-town Manhattan for a United Healthcare Group investors’ conference.
The conference was celebrating the bloated profits of an industry whose predatory non-payment practices help make medical bills the United States’ number one cause of personal bankruptcy and a leading driver of homelessness.
Forbes Magazine reported that UnitedHealth Group, the US’ fourth-largest public company behind Walmart, Amazon and Apple, made US$22 billion in 2023.
Research shows an estimated 45,000 Americans die needlessly every year due to unaffordable health insurance.
Globally, privatisation has dehumanised healthcare and undermined democracy.
In Australia, public health is chronically underfunded, while governments pander to private health insurers, who act with almost total immunity no matter how egregious their proven harm.
It is well documented that this kind of accountability vacuum engenders community support for vigilantism and the principle of crime needing to be punished.
Right or wrong, many conclude the only path to justice is to take matters into their own hands.
When the US health insurance industry’s “never-pay” algorithm met the cost-of-corporate-greed crisis, amid the worst US inflation rate in 40 years, it morphed into the nightmarish blizzard into which Thompson and his assailant walked.
To be clear, what happened to Thompson was a homicide. The 50-year-old was shot dead, allegedly with a 3D-printed gun with a silencer, with cold determination in what the NYPD described as a “targeted shooting”. Thompson left behind a wife and family as his killer walked away — a disturbingly common scenario.
It is what happened next that rendered it so extraordinary.
A shell casing and bullets were found at the scene inscribed with three words: “delay”, “deny” and “depose”, reportedly a reference to the book by Jay M Feinman Delay, Deny, Defend — Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.
The book sets out, in forensic detail, how all types of insurance companies rip off their customers, fighting claimants all the way, refusing to pay even the most legitimate of claims.
When those ballistic details were publicised, the visceral public hatred of corporations in general, and insurers in particular, which had been brewing for decades, finally boiled over.
It triggered a social media pile-on, ripping the mask off the capitalist cartel that is the privatisation of health services.
Post after post exposed the depth of socio-economic misery inflicted by the health insurance industry on the community and their white-hot anger at the lap-dogging by politicians who lunch with lobbyists.
Many mocked and celebrated Thompson’s death, inundating the company’s website with “laughter” emojis and painting the shooter as a David and Goliath hero.
Amid countless heartbreaking accounts of lives ruined by these companies, journalist Taylor Lorenz, who previously wrote for the New York Times and Washington Post, wrote in a Bluesky post: “And people wonder why we want these executives dead”.
Not everyone agreed, with some saying the relentless “he-had-it-coming” rhetoric was a worrying sign of radicalisation and coincides with a rise in threats against health professionals in general since the pandemic.
As one journalist said: “The framing of this incident as some opening blow in a class war and not a brutal murder is especially alarming.”
The storm only got bigger. When companies hired extra executive security, online vigilantes compiled summaries of LinkedIn profiles with names, addresses and photographs of company executives.
When CCTV photos of the suspect were released, a macabre suspect look-alike competition was held in Washington Square Park, supporters turning up in dark hoodies and masks. Authorities were desperate to shut it down.
Suspect in custody
Suspected shooter Luigi Mangione was taken into custody on December 9, after a McDonald’s worker recognised him from the relentless TV coverage.
Mangione was charged with stalking, firearms offences and Thompson’s murder. Far from having the cooling effect the authorities had hoped for, his arrest only inflamed the backlash.
Mangione was no loner-loser making bombs in the basement. He is an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Baltimore family and is reportedly highly intelligent with a reputation for humility.
Mangione became a martyr for those who claimed his actions were justifiable homicide, and numerous crowdfunding campaigns sprung up to pay for his legal defence.
In the US “justifiable homicide” is defined as a killing without evil or criminal intent, for which there can be no blame, such as self-defence to protect oneself or to protect another.
Whether the jury decides shooting one insurance executive in the name of protecting tens of thousands of customers from preventable death constitutes “justifiable” remains to be seen.
But whatever you think of the alleged actions of Mangione or his growing global support base, the entire murky episode has made one thing crystal clear: If governments do not start protecting honest consumers from the inhumane levels of corporate greed that is destroying so many lives, unfortunately Thompson might not be the last to get caught in the crossfire.