Theguardian.com – In the aftermath of the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while Thompson’s colleagues grieve and politicians decry his murder, some online discussion has shown little sympathy for Thompson or the industry he represented.
That belies the shock also generated by the brutality of Thompson’s death. The killing appeared premeditated and calculated.
A gunman dressed in black waited for Thompson outside the midtown Manhattan Hilton where he was scheduled to speak at an investor’s 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.
Andrew Witty, CEO of the parent company, UnitedHealth Group, called the attack “a terrible tragedy” in a message sent to company employees and shared with the Guardian.
“Our hearts are with his family, especially his mom, his wife Paulie, his brother and his two boys, who lost a father today,” Witty said.
Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic US Senator from Minnesota, described the killing as “a horrifying and shocking act of violence”.
Another said: “An innocent victim was gunned down in cold blood. Have a heart regardless of your health insurance.”
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’s growing acceptance of violence as a way to settle civil disputes.
“Now the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,” said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats. “That’s what I saw when I saw this.”
Although the motive for the killing is unknown, it has not stopped rampant speculation that there was an obvious candidate – Thompson’s work in corporate health insurance. That speculation was only furthered by the discovery of shell casings scrawled with the words “deny”, “depose” and “defend” in permanent marker.
“What I think we’re really experiencing as a country is the erosion against norms,” said Pape, with the little sympathy among the “body politic” expressed in social media as one more example.
“That means, basically, seeing violence as the more normal tool, or acceptable tool, to resolve what should be straightforward civil disputes resolved in nonviolent ways.”
Thompson’s killing also laid bare the threat that healthcare executives face in a season of American violence – from insurers to pharma to hospitals.
“It doesn’t seem paranoid to worry that someone who’s had services denied that they may believe are important might be in an emotionally unstable state and could take some action,” Michael Sherman, former chief medical officer at Point32Health, told Stat, a health industry publication. “The most likely targets would be the chief medical officer … or the CEO.”
Comments online did not single out Thompson, a 50-year-old licensed accountant who reportedly kept a low profile. Instead, they were targeted at an industry often seen as a despised fact of life in America. Comments laced “jokes” with the sting of denial, delay, debt and impenetrable bureaucracy, all ubiquitous and reviled experiences for the throngs of Americans who are now or have been insured through a private company.
