{"id":4858,"date":"2024-12-05T18:22:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T02:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=4858"},"modified":"2024-12-05T18:23:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T02:23:34","slug":"brian-thompsons-killing-sparks-outrage-over-state-of-us-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=4858","title":{"rendered":"Brian Thompson\u2019s killing sparks outrage over state of US healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Americans turn to social media to discuss dire experiences at hands of health insurance companies
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


In the aftermath of the\u00a0killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a>, while Thompson\u2019s colleagues grieve and politicians decry his murder, some online discussion has shown little sympathy for Thompson or the industry he represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, social media has been in engulfed in expressions of anger at many Americans\u2019 dire experiences at the hands of health insurance companies and outrage at the large profits that they generate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That belies the shock also generated by the brutality of Thompson\u2019s death. The killing appeared premeditated and calculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gunman dressed in black waited for Thompson outside the midtown Manhattan Hilton where he was scheduled to speak at an investor\u2019s meeting, approached him from behind with a handgun fitted with a silencer, and shot and killed the executive, according to police.

He fled on an ebike into Central Park. A manhunt is ongoing. The motive is unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Witty, CEO of the parent company, UnitedHealth Group, called the attack \u201ca terrible tragedy\u201d in a message sent to company employees and shared with the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hearts are with his family, especially his mom, his wife Paulie, his brother and his two boys, who lost a father today,\u201d Witty said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic US Senator from Minnesota, described the killing as \u201ca horrifying and shocking act of violence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in contrast, one commenter on CNN\u2019s Instagram post<\/a> about Thompson\u2019s death wrote: \u201cCan\u2019t find the room to care over my daughter\u2019s $60,000 cancer treatment. Thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another said: \u201cAn innocent victim

was gunned down in cold blood. Have a heart regardless of your health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vacillating between the condemnation of violence and dark humor, celebratory memes and outright violent rhetoric, comments on social media highlight the deep and often unpleasant connection Americans have with their own health system.

An expert in political violence told the Guardian he sees this as part of the US\u2019s growing acceptance of violence as a way to settle civil disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,\u201d said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago\u2019s project on security and threats. \u201cThat\u2019s what I saw when I saw this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the motive for the killing is unknown, it has not stopped rampant speculation that there was an obvious candidate \u2013 Thompson\u2019s work in corporate health insurance. That speculation was only furthered by the discovery of shell casings<\/a> scrawled with the words \u201cdeny\u201d, \u201cdepose\u201d and \u201cdefend\u201d in permanent marker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think we\u2019re really experiencing as a country is the erosion against norms,\u201d said Pape, with the little sympathy among the \u201cbody politic\u201d expressed in social media as one more example. \u201cThat means, basically, seeing violence as the more normal tool, or acceptable tool, to resolve what should be straightforward civil disputes resolved in nonviolent ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson\u2019s killing also laid bare the threat that healthcare executives face in a season of American violence<\/a> \u2013 from insurers to pharma<\/a> to hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem paranoid to worry that someone who\u2019s had services denied that they may believe are important might be in an emotionally unstable state and could take some action,\u201d Michael Sherman, former chief medical officer at Point32Health, told Stat<\/a>, a health industry publication. \u201cThe most likely targets would be the chief medical officer \u2026 or the CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments online did not single out Thompson, a 50-year-old licensed accountant who reportedly kept a low profile<\/a>. Instead, they were targeted at an industry often seen as a despised fact of life in America. Comments laced \u201cjokes\u201d with the sting of denial, delay, debt and impenetrable bureaucracy, all ubiquitous<\/a> and reviled experiences for the throngs of Americans who are now or have been insured through a private company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another comment: \u201cDoes he have a history of shootings? Denied coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranked by size, UnitedHealth Group is one of the biggest companies in the world. Measured by its market capitalization of $539bn<\/a> it tops household names such as Mastercard and ExxonMobil. The company is one of the biggest private insurers in the nation, providing health coverage to more than 50 million Americans spanning employer insurance all the way to the elderly through Medicare Advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson ran the insurance division of the company as a reportedly longtime employee who kept a low profile. With an enormous footprint, it is also the subject of near constant scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson himself was part of an investigation into insider trading at the company. Early this year, after the Department of Justice began an inquiry into monopolistic practices, executives at United sold $101m in stocks, including Thompson, who sold $15m, before the public became aware of the investigation, according to\u00a0Crain\u2019s New York Business<\/a>. Witty was hauled in for\u00a0congressional testimony<\/a>\u00a0over a\u00a0cyber-attack in February<\/a>\u00a0that caused severe disruptions across the healthcare industry. UnitedHealthcare has been criticized as denying care to\u00a0vulnerable patients<\/a>.

While security executives for leading Fortune 500 companies gathered on Wednesday, others marveled in public that Thompson was unaccompanied on his way to the annual investor conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Julian, CEO of MPS Security & Protection, told Axios<\/a> that he \u201cwas shocked the guy didn\u2019t have a protective detail\u201d, implying that a head of an American healthcare giant would be an obvious target for the potentially aggrieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether this technically will fit the pigeonhole of political violence or not, it obviously will be an important issue,\u201d said Pape, whose recent study showed a dramatic increase in instances of violent threats against both Democrats and Republicans since about 2017, the beginning of the first Trump term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it also misses the bigger picture of what\u2019s been happening in our country.\u201d

Reprinted from The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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