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Torrent of Anger for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing
The shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare executive in Manhattan has unleashed Americans’ frustrations with an industry that often denies coverage and reimbursement for medical claims.
The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning was a shock to the city and the nation. But as police hunted for the missing gunman in what they called a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack,” social media erupted with contempt for the health insurance industry he represented — and his company in particular.
“Saw mainstream news coverage about the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare on TikTok and I think political and industry leaders might want to read the comments and think hard about them,” wrote political activist Tobita Chow in a post on X, formerly Twitter. In screenshots he shared, TikTok users reacted to the story with blistering references to the costly and often unnavigable for-profit U.S. health insurance system. “Sending prior authorization, denied claims, collections & prayers to his family,” wrote one.
“As someone covered under UnitedHealthcare I can completely understand the actions taken,” wrote an X user replying to a news link about Thompson’s murder “being investigated as a possible hit,” according to a statement from law enforcement. “Did he have a pre-existing condition?” asked another. And under an ABC News TikTok on police officers’ efforts to find the killer, a user asked, “Why are they investigating this?”
“Got a push notification to exercise caution because the United Healthcare shooter is still at large,” noted standup comic Samantha Ruddy in her own X post. “I personally do not feel like I am on the shooter’s radar because I am not the CEO of a highly divisive multi-billion dollar insurance company.”
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Thompson’s violent death outside a hotel where UnitedHealthcare was hosting an investor conference didn’t just prompt scathing jokes but heated criticism of the insurer he had helmed since 2021. One image that made the rounds online was a chart from the personal finance website ValuePenguin, which found that UnitedHealthcare denies 32 percent of all in-network claims relating to individual health insurance plans — twice the industry average. Some pointed to headlines describing how UnitedHealthcare has used an allegedly faulty AI algorithm to assess claims and deny care for seriously ill patients on private Medicare Advantage plans, as described in an ongoing class-action lawsuit brought by the estates of two deceased people who were denied coverage for their care at an extended-care facility.
Among those who amplified that story was right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, suggesting that Americans across the political spectrum can find rare consensus when it comes to disdain for their free-market health care system. “It’s actually kind of touching that the one thing that can bring together our fractious and disunited country is celebrating the assassination of a health insurance CEO,” wrote University of Virginia historian David Austin Walsh on X.
Still, a few dissenters tried to shame anyone making light of the slaying. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who unsuccessfully challenged President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination, drew an odd comparison to Israel‘s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon. “Seems like leftists opposed to killing terrorists in the Middle East support killing CEOs in Midtown Manhattan,” he fumed on X, adding, “Sick.” Both Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, where UnitedHealthcare is based, shared statements of condolence.
While the shooter’s identity and motive are presently unknown, Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he had received threats and that they may have involved issues with a customer’s “lack of coverage.” The NYPD has released surveillance images of the suspect, who was masked and wearing a black jacket with a gray backpack, and has offered a $10,000 reward for information regarding the homicide.
Another ongoing lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, named Thompson along with two other top executives. A pension for firefighters in the city of Hollywood, Florida, filed the securities fraud class action earlier this year, accusing Thompson and his colleagues of selling $120 million of their UnitedHealth shares after learning of a U.S. Justice Department antitrust investigation of the company — but before the probe became public.
Between coverage of such alleged profiteering, UnitedHealthcare’s grim reputation, and disclosures of the millions the company spends on lobbying and Thompson’s $10 million salary, there was hardly a shortage of material for vicious riffs. “It’s no surprise that gallows humor is responding to the assassination of a gallows business model CEO,” observed Dr. Steven Thrasher in a post on X. A professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School, Thrasher is the author of The Viral Underclass, a book about inequalities in health care that determine who has privileged access to medical resources. “Health insurance lets ghouls decide whether to live or die based upon how much your life or death will affect shareholder value.”
For once, too, it seemed that no extremist factions were quick to blame the murder on ideological opponents, as they typically have in the wake of high-profile shootings throughout the U.S. in recent years (save one Fox News commentator who suggested the NYPD hadn’t yet located the shooter because they were too busy dealing with immigrant crime). Online influencers known to shape a narrative before the facts emerge instead proved willing to wait and see where the case would lead. Within the feverish climate of social media, this made for an unfamiliar sort of restraint — almost as unusual as the street homicide of an American businessman.
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz encouraged people to kill health company executives just hours after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Biran Thompson.
"And people wonder why we want these executives dead," Lorenz wrote on Bluesky in response to Thompson's murder.
Lorenz then posted an image of Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Kim Keck.
https://t.co/RphaBEugSe pic.twitter.com/tVKzL2hwWC
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) December 4, 2024
"People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering," Lorenz said in another post. "As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it."
Of note, bullet casings recovered at the scene of Brian Thompson's murder were inscribed with the words "Delay, Deny & Depose."
Lorenz also shared other left-leaning journalists' posts, including Ken Klippenstein and Jezebel staff writer Kylie Cheung, the latter of whom wrote " the way we're socialized to see violence only as interpersonal—not see state violence (policies that create poverty/kill), structural violence, institutional violence—is very deliberate. same w/ panics about ~shoplifting~ vs how much corporations steal from every single one of us."
"No s--- murder is bad. The jokes about the United CEO aren’t really about him; they’re about the rapacious healthcare system he personified and which Americans feel deep pain and humiliation about," wrote Klippenstein, who joked that he hoped Thompson's ambulance ride "was in network."
Lorenz also reposted another Bluesky user who wrote, "[H}ypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat to start emailing other insurance CEOs a simple ‘you're next’? Completely unrelated to current events btw."
Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.
Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors.
The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.
As that lawsuit made its way through the courts, anger regarding the massive insurer's predilection towards denying claims has only grown, and speculation about the assassin's motives suggests that he may have been among those upset with UHC's coverage.
Though we don't yet know the identity of the person who shot Thompson nor his reasoning, reports claim that he wrote the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" on the shell casing of the bullets used to shoot the CEO — a message that makes it sound a lot like the killer was aggrieved against the insurance industry's aggressive denials of coverage to sick patients.
Beyond the shooter's own motives, it's clear from the shockingly celebratory reaction online to Thompson's murder that anger about the American insurance and healthcare system has reached the point of literal bloodlust.
As The American Prospect so aptly put it, "only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO."
And the alarming cruelty of the claims around the company's AI algorithm — we asked the company whether it's still using it, but received no immediate reply — perfectly illustrates why they're so angry.