Shocked over reaction to exec’s murder? Consider what it says about healthcare system | Opinion
Last week, thousands celebrated the downfall of a notorious symbol of their ongoing oppression, finding hope for their futures in their ruin. Some might think I’m talking about Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, the brutal Syrian dictator. But since we’re in America, you can’t be sure.
But no, I’m more specifically thinking of Brian Thompson, the slain United Health Care executive. Unlike Assad, nobody knew Thompson’s name until he was shot dead in Midtown Manhattan. But upon learning his job description, a multi-millionaire CEO leading a healthcare company tasked with maximizing the profits of his shareholders, some hated him all the same.
Street violence is, obviously, plainly, not going to fix American health care, and I don’t want righteous anger channeled into tactics that endanger us all. And fortunately, at least for healthcare executives wandering Midtown, most people are not yet angry enough to shoot their least favorite CEOs three times in broad daylight. Nor are they mad enough to write targeted messages — DENY, DEFEND, DEPOSE — referring to the methods insurance companies use to reject your mom’s chemotherapy.
But those same people are angry enough not to find a single thing to mourn. And maybe even buy some merch.
We have much to mourn in Texas, much of it the result of our health care. According to a Forbes study, our state has the fifth-highest healthcare costs in the country. The same study also showed that nearly 15% of Texas children have families who struggled to pay their medical bills in the last 12 months – the highest percentage in the nation. All these dismal stats add up to a below-average life expectancy in a country that lags five years below economically comparable nations. We spend more money on health care and get less health out of it.
These stats are not bugs but features of the industry Thompson chose to pursue. Healthcare companies and their execs have made the extent of their evil extremely legible. As The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino wrote, Thompson was “reflexively viewed as a dictatorial purveyor of suffering.” Trust your reflexes: He sold $15 million in stock despite allegedly knowing of an active Department of Justice antitrust investigation months before the Wall Street Journal publicized the probe.
Luigi Mangione, 26, has been charged with second-degree murder in New York after he was apprehended Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania. But even if our system prosecutes and convicts the shooter quicker than an insurance rep canceling your cancer-stricken mom’s hospice care, the simmering sorrow, anger and, most strikingly, relief, animating and overflowing from the CEO’s murder aren’t going away.
Some may find the response dysfunctional, but the wise and proactive among them see them as evidence of a nation’s preexisting conditions. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., stressed that there was “no justification for violence” but that he was nonetheless unsurprised.
“Look, I as a congressperson had UnitedHealthcare deny a prescription for a nasal $100 pump spray, and I couldn’t get them to reverse this. So imagine what ordinary people are dealing with the biggest denial comes when it’s cancer treatment,” Khanna said. “I mean, people are getting denied on cancer treatment.”
Khanna may be in California, but he approximates a serious model that every elected official could stand to adopt, including ours. Even better than the right tone would be, as Khanna suggested, making sure that all people have the same standard of care available, with Medicare as a bare minimum.
But until then, expect more of the same quips, thirsty comments about Mangione’s grin (and possibly his abdominal muscles) and laugh emojis on social media posts attempting to respect his death.
Andrew Witty, Thompson’s former boss, said in a video message to employees that Thompson was a “truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond.” Witty was not delivering a punchline, but millions of Americans took the sentiment for what it was. They took it the same way they see their healthcare system, a system that finds justice for CEOs before the people whose lives he ruined: a cruel joke.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Shocked over reaction to exec’s murder? Consider what it says about healthcare system | Opinion."
