Tomás Ó Flatharta

Young, well educated Luigi Mangione is certainly learning that corporate America does not take kindly to the killing of one of their own. When he took the life of Brian Thompson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of United Healthcare, one of the largest US health insurance providers, there was an immediate shocked reaction by corporations, the media, and politicians.

They saw it as a threat to all corporate leaders, who now feared for their lives. Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” scrawled on them. These are phrases used by health insurance companies in the US to avoid paying claims. The corporate heads were shocked. On the other hand, the media was inundated by people reporting their bad experiences with health insurance companies who denied their claims for needed treatments, surgeries and procedures.

In the United States health care system, it is not the doctors or the patients who decide; it is the private health insurance companies who make the life and death decisions over people’s lives. Everyone understands that if they reject a claim, you just don’t get the treatment that you need. And since they are profit making corporations, the profit is all that matters and the best way to increase profits is to reject claims. Therefore, the importance of delay, deny and depose! Of all the US health insurance corporations, Reddit.com reported that United Healthcare had the highest rate of claim rejections, 32% denial rate, compared to the industry average of 16%.  

“The rage that people felt at the health insurance industry, and the elation that they expressed at seeing it injured, was widespread and organic. It was shocking to many, but it crossed communities all along the political spectrum and took hold in countless divergent cultural clusters.”1

After the shooting, social media was full of users sharing healthcare horror stories such as these: 

“Lobbying the govt to squash single payer healthcare in the USA. Not just my family, but all families.”  

“During the pandemic they called to schedule an assessment for home care for a patient who’d been previously denied and had been trying to schedule a reassessment. Great, only the patient had passed away several weeks prior. After being denied home care, they were admitted to the hospital, got COVID and died.”  

“My 52 y/o mom felt like her cancer had returned/was growing. They denied a scan my mom needed, saying she had to wait 8 more weeks because it had not been long enough since the last one. The cancer had started to spread to my mom’s brain, but it was now too late for anything to be done. We were told they would have needed to start treatment weeks ago to prevent it getting to that point, and there was pretty much nothing that could really be done. We tried a few days of radiation, but….” 

“Denied my son’s er bill for months by calling it a preexisting condition. It was a compound fracture of his right forearm. UHC claimed that ‘it was suspicious that I visited the er 6 weeks after my insurance kicked in.’ Yeah, I let my six-year-old wander around with a bleeding, broken arm for SIX WEEKS before seeking care. Oh, and I’m an ER nurse.” 

“I am 85 years old and on Medicare.  I had surgery a year ago and was prescribed physical therapy after. UH covered only a small amount, which I did not learn until I finished. Even so, I was given a policy increase this year of 25%.”    

“Another large group of people impacted by the failed health care system is young adults. They can be covered by their family’s insurance until they are 26 years old. After that, if they don’t have access to employer provide coverage, they find insurance unaffordable, so just go without.”  

“I don’t think he was killed instantly. He had enough time to know someone had shot him. And in that instant, he’d know why.” 

“Believing the health insurance industry is at least partly responsible for the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is not some fringe position. 69 percent of Americans say health insurance claim denials had “a great deal” or  “moderate amount” of responsibility for the killing of CEO Brian Thompson, according to a new poll conducted by NORC at University of Chicago. Nearly as many (67 percent) blamed health insurance company profits.”2

For example, as CEO Brian Thompson received total compensation of $10.2 million in 2023. He also owned $20 million in the company’s stock. The company’s profits rose on his watch, jumping to more than $16 billion that year from $12 billion in 2021. But amid the growth, the company and its parent also attracted scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators who accused them of systematically refusing to authorize health care procedures and treatments.  

The resentment has grown in recent years, health insurance executives, policy experts and pollsters say, fueled by the rising costs of medical care and the emergence of huge bureaucracies that make seeing the doctor more difficult. 

High deductibles and co-payments are causing nearly two of five working-age adults to delay visiting the doctor and filling prescriptions, according to an August study by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit, bipartisan health care research foundation. Those who do get care can become burdened by medical or dental debt, something almost one-third of working-age adults report experiencing, the study said.3 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the numbers of people who complained about health insurance companies, likening it to support for Mangione’s action. She is now meeting with corporate leaders to provide better security for corporations in New York City (NYC). 

After Mangione escaped the scene of the killing, there was a massive manhunt across several states by federal and state forces. When he was brought back to the city, he was taken on a perp walk surrounded by a mass of helmeted police, armed with assault rifles, although Mangione was handcuffed and shackled. NYC Mayor Adams and the police commissioner even joined the perp walk, a highly unusual action. After his arrest, a manifesto written by Mangione was found.

The manifesto indicated that he saw the killing as a direct challenge to the health care industry’s “corruption” and “power games.” “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” the document read. 

Mangione was first charged with murder as an act of terrorism, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole. New York does not have the death penalty.  So, later he was brought back to court to face another charge. He is now facing a federal charge of murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense, which does carry the possibility of the death penalty, though federal prosecutors will determine whether to pursue the death penalty in a non-death penalty state. 

Mangione’s treatment can be compared with that of white supremacist Dylann Roof who killed nine Black people in a church in South Carolina in 2015. Looking at the images of Roof’s arrest, he was given a flack jacket and is handcuffed and was led along by one or two cops. He was not surrounded by a mass of armed police. He was obviously not a threat; he only killed Black people.  

Roof, of course, is now one of three death row inmates whose sentences were not commuted by President Biden’s recent commutation of all other death row sentences.  

Joan McKiernan January 1 2025 [Updated January 2 2025]

1. “The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms”, New York Times, Dec. 6, 2024

2. Ken Klippenstein, Dec 27, 2024 
   
3. “The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms”, New York Times, Dec. 6, 2024 

Comments 

“I am 85 years old and on Medicare.  I had surgery a year ago and was prescribed physical therapy after. UH covered only a small amount, which I did not learn until I finished. Even so, I was given a policy increase this year of 25%.”   

Link :

Luigi’s Manifesto