The death of Brian Thompson has evoked little sympathy. I don’t need to explain why | Arwa Mahdawi

Meme a killer

If you saw the person who shot Brian Thompson, would you a) report him to the police or b) go about your day happily?

Judging from the gleeful reaction to the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, 99% of the United States would choose option b. There have been many memes after Thompson was shot in what appears to have been a targeted attack in Manhattan. There have been many jokes about pre-existing conditions and denials of coverage. There have been many shocking stories about how UnitedHealthcare has destroyed people’s lives refuse coverage. What there hasn’t been is much sympathy for the 50-year-old insurance CEO. In a country where we disagree on many things, a lot of people seem to agree with Clarence Darrow’s quote: “I never wished a man dead, but I have enjoyed reading some obituaries.”

I don’t need to explain why Thompson’s death has generated so little sympathy. It doesn’t matter how great he was to his friends and family; he was a top executive at a company that treated millions of people very poorly. Health insurance in the US is a racket more focused on increasing profits than providing care. And UnitedHealthcare is particularly egregious when it comes to charging its customers huge premiums, then turning around and denying them care when they desperately need it. According to data from ValuePenguin, a consumer research site owned by LendingTree that specializes in insurance, the The company has denied about one in three claims in 2023. That’s the most of any major insurer: the industry average is 16%.

Denying claims is apparently very profitable. UnitedHealth has a market value of $566 billionand generated nearly $372 billion in revenue last year. It is the fourth largest publicly traded American company by revenue. Thompson himself got his fair share of that: he deserved $10.2 million by 2023. He was also very good at selling his shares at opportune moments: Thompson was one of the three UnitedHealth Group executives mentioned in a class action lawsuit accused of dumping more than $120 million in stock while the company was the subject of a federal antitrust investigation.

In short: Thompson was the face of an unfair system that screwed millions of people. No one yet knows what the motive behind Thompson’s murder was, but the gunman wrote “deny,” “defend” and “deposit” on the shell casings left at the scene – mirroring the title of a book about predatory practices of insurance companies. There has been a lot of speculation (and it is purely speculation) that the shooter may have been someone whose loved one did not receive coverage from UnitedHealthcare.

Whatever the motive, many people seem to think Thompson got what he deserved. The joy we see comes not only from hostility toward insurance companies, but also from anger at an unfair system in which the elite rarely seem to face any consequences for their actions. The banks that caused the 2008 financial crisis were bailed out, while ordinary people lost their homes. The key executives behind the opioid crisis may never see a prison cell, despite the lives they have destroyed. Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter. Donald Trump becomes the first president to be convicted of a crime.

To be clear, I in no way condone Thompson’s murder, nor do I support vigilantes gunning down CEOs in the streets. Killing someone is clearly wrong. But please spare me the trouble pearl clutch by people (mainly politicians and billionaires) who are shocked by the satisfaction of Thompson’s murder, but who are happy to endorse or ignore other forms of violence. It’s quite enlightening to see who is vocally outraged by Thompson’s death, yet indifferent to murder on an industrial scale. Representative Ritchie Torres, for example, tweeted that Murder of Thompson “is so shocking that it leaves you speechless.” Meanwhile, Torres is working overtime to cover up the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza – which Amnesty International has called a genocide. Apparently violence isn’t shocking when it’s directed at people you consider subhuman, rather than rich white CEOs. To some, violence also doesn’t seem so shocking when it’s baked into an economic system that kills people through greed and neglect rather than with a gun.

Now that the US is finally having a national conversation about how much people hate health insurers, the big question is: will anything change? There is some positive news: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said Thursday it would reverse a decision placing a time limit on anesthesia. It is not clear whether Thompson’s murder had anything to do with this, but negative sentiment toward insurers likely played a role.

Still, I wouldn’t get too optimistic about the impending systematic change. Instead of humanizing their business models, it is likely that health insurers will simply invest more money in private security. Indeed, it appears that security companies are I already see an upturn in business. This is the world we live in, I guess. One person’s murder is another’s business opportunity.

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