The Memo: Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO uncorks anger at insurance industry

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street is the latest moment to shine a light on the tensions roiling American life.

On social media in particular, some users gloated about the killing — a reaction they framed as rooted in their enmity for the health insurance industry. That, in turn, brought rebukes from others who condemned those responses as inhumane, especially in the circumstances.

But in between those two poles, the furor was a reminder of two truths. 

First, there is a widespread perception that health insurance companies are characterized by avarice and callousness. Second, there is a danger of such simmering anger boiling over into violence, especially at a moment when society at large is in such a febrile state.

For example, a national poll a year ago found that almost 1 in 4 Americans agreed with the statement that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

These cross-currents are clashing in the Thompson death amid a situation where much remains unclear.

For now, the motive is unknown, as is the identity and whereabouts of the gunman.

The insurance company CEO, aged 50, was fatally shot early on Wednesday morning as he arrived for the company’s investor conference in a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Security camera footage released from the scene shows a gunman, wearing a hooded jacket and a backpack, fire at Thompson from behind. The attacker was reportedly proficient enough with firearms to clear a jam in his gun before resuming shooting at the executive.

The footage shows the killer appear relatively calm, not seeming to panic as Thompson crumples, and only breaking into a slight jog as he crosses the street to leave the scene.

Shell casings at the scene had words written on them with marker, according to the Associated Press, said to have included “Depose," “Deny” and “Defend.”

Those terms are often used to describe the health insurance’s tactics to avoid paying out claims for medical treatment. A 2010 book critical of the industry by Jay Feinman was titled “Delay Deny Defend” and was sub-titled, “Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”

In one macabre side effect of the killing, the book appears to be experiencing a minor sales surge, with different editions occupying the top four spots on Amazon’s list of “business insurance” bestsellers on Thursday evening.

The killing of Thompson, whose annual compensation package exceeded $10 million, drew instant, sardonic comment from some social media users.

“Thoughts and sympathy today to all of those who have lost loved ones, because they were denied insurance claims by #UnitedHealthcare,” wrote on such user.

Another posted a mock logo for the company featuring crosshairs, along with the question, “Do you think I’d get sued if I made this as a shirt.”

Yet another wrote, “it’s hard to find sympathy for a CEO of one of the worst health care companies in the world…They eat off your family members [sic] grave.”

It wasn’t all random comment from otherwise anonymous individuals, either.

Anthony Zenkus, a senior lecturer in social work at Columbia University, wrote on X, “Today we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…wait, I’m sorry— today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”

As of Thursday evening, Zenkus’s post had been liked 84,000 times and retweeted 11,000 times.

Those kinds of sentiments spurred a counter-reaction.

Billy Binion, a reporter for libertarian publication Reason, wrote on X that it was “vile” that people seemed to be “gleefully celebrating a dad of two getting shot to death.” 

Robert Pondiscio of the conservative American Enterprise Institute wrote on the same site that the online response to Thompson’s killing “marks a new and ominous low for social media.”

The broader context that feeds the reaction of Thompson is worth emphasizing.

Asked in a KFF poll earlier this year about who was responsible for high healthcare prices, 97 percent of registered voters said insurance companies bore “a lot of blame” or “some blame.”

The broader health insurance industry often acts in such a way as to seem to validate the views of its harshest critics, too.

On Thursday, a different insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, abandoned a proposed policy change that would have limited reimbursements for anesthetic during surgeries.

Critics condemned a proposal that they said would have left patients bearing some of the cost of their own anesthesia, though the company insisted that there had been “significant widespread misinformation” about what exactly it was proposing.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who had expressed opposition to the change, celebrated on Thursday that, “We pushed Anthem to reverse course and today they will be announcing a full reversal of this misguided policy.”

The whole issue of health care, and the profits that come with it, continues to be an angry fissure in public debate.

A February report from KFF found that Americans owe “at least $220 billion” in medical debt, and that about 3 million people have debts of over $10,000.

According to the Associated Press, the business over which Thompson presided took in $281 billion in revenue last year.

The shots that killed Thompson are resonating across a national landscape where visceral tensions are running high.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.