It says it all when the brutal and apparently targeted murder of a health insurance CEO draws applause from sections of the American public.
No one even knew who UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson was before he was shot outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
Not that people seem to care now. No, many of my fellow Americans are more obsessed with the so-called “burning killer.” How young he is; how expertly he cleared his jammed gun to fire multiple rounds in rapid succession; his cinematic escape to Central Park on an electric bicycle after throwing a burner phone at the crime scene.
He has become a folk hero, something straight out of The Day of the Jackal. It is being celebrated on social media. Yes, it is a real cesspool, but the collective adulation of this murderer – however deplorable – is transmitting a bracing message.
For too many Americans, the rapacious healthcare industry had it coming. Never mind that Thompson, 50, was a father of two and left behind a wife who, despite their supposed estrangement, praised him as “an incredibly loving, generous and talented man who truly lived life to the fullest.”
Instead, what much of the US news coverage has focused on is Thompson’s salary (more than £7.85 million), his alleged role in insider trading and a 2021 plan to refuse payment of emergency visits considered “non-critical”.
UnitedHealthcare made £221 billion last year. Meanwhile, many of their paying clients – average Americans barely surviving – were routinely denied hospital visits, faced sky-high bills, or were denied life-saving medications. It seems increasingly likely that this was a factor in the murder.
The gunman left clues: live ammunition and bullet casings with a word written on each: “deny,” “depose,” “defend.”
UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson, 50, was shot outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
The gunman suspected of killing the head of the health insurance. He left clues: live ammunition and shell casings with a word written on each: “deny,” “depose,” “defend.”
A CCTV image shows the gunman approaching Thompson and shooting him from behind.
Those words echo a popular 2010 book titled Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims And What You Can Do About It.
Thompson was killed the week that another U.S. insurer – considered one that offered standard coverage – announced it would no longer pay for certain “anesthetic care” if surgery exceeded an arbitrary time limit.
This is the double-edged sword of the privatized US healthcare industry. At best, it is unbeatable. No country in the world can compare. If you’re rich, famous, or have a high-paying job with good job benefits, you’ll be in the best possible hands at the lowest personal cost. You can see consultants the same day, in swanky clinics more like hotel suites.
But if you’re not a member of the one percent, you run the risk of being screwed. You will be caught in the jaws of a soulless system that will determine what kind of tests you are eligible for, where you will be treated and by whom, run by anonymous bureaucrats you will never meet and can never contact.
The system is designed to keep patients, no matter how serious their diagnoses, powerless to defend themselves or defend themselves.
Almost six years ago, one of my best friends gave birth to twins via planned cesarean section at Lenox Hill Hospital, one of the best in New York City, where Beyoncé decided to give birth in 2012.
My friend suffered serious complications after giving birth. But her treatment was lax and arrogant until a nurse recognized her as the author of a best-selling medical memoir.
Moments later, she was rushed to the ‘Beyoncé floor’ for quick treatment while patients strolled around in expensive pajamas, drank fresh orange juice and ate gourmet meals in spacious private rooms.
The entire experience left her outraged and, yes, feeling helpless.
It is this callous bifurcation between America’s rich and poor on matters of life and death that evokes such revulsion.
That’s why Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite his wild theories, is accepted by so many to lead America’s health policy. People are fed up. They want a disruptor like RFK Jr. to take on Big Pharma, who they believe wants to make Americans sick and keep them sick for profit.
It is no coincidence that after Thompson’s death, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, the insurer that proposed limiting anesthesia coverage, reversed its decision.
The American healthcare industry has a lot to answer for and it seems that the death not of its clients, but that of its own, is the only thing that makes them listen.