The suspect in the murder of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson was not a customer of the health insurer, a company spokesperson said. Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League-educated individual with chronic back pain, was charged with murder on December 9 for the killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel before a company conference.
Thompson’s murder has sparked widespread shock and outrage, particularly among those struggling with healthcare costs and the complexities of the US health insurance system. Public officials and healthcare executives have acknowledged the frustrations, but have also pushed back against social media glorification of the accused killer.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty penned an opinion piece in The New York Times, acknowledging public frustrations with the “flawed” US healthcare system, but mourning Thompson’s killing and condemning the “vitriol” directed at company employees. Witty noted that the US healthcare system is a patchwork built over decades, and that health insurance companies, including UnitedHealth, share some responsibility for the complexity of the system.
The murder has also led to a reevaluation of security measures in the healthcare sector, with companies such as UnitedHealth, CVS Health, and Cigna removing photos of their leadership from their websites. Instead of boosting security for executives, insurers may need to focus on managing public perception of their services, said Professor Pepper Culpepper of Oxford University.
Culpepper noted that many Americans believe big health insurers refuse to cover needed care in an effort to bolster revenue, and that this sort of ambient discontent around health insurance in the US will not go away until it is addressed. The incident has also sparked a wider debate about the US healthcare system, with some arguing that it is in need of significant reform.