CEO Was Shot Dead Outside Hotel, But Empathy Is Little. Why?

Brian Thompson was 50 years old when he was shot dead outside a hotel in New York City, but his death is not shocking the country.

Last Wednesday, December 4, the United States woke up to the news that Brian Thompson, CEO of one of the largest health insurance companies in the country, was shot dead outside a hotel in Manhattan, New York. However, the death brought little empathy and some even joked about the situation. Why?

Brian Thompson, 50, had worked at United Healthcare for more than 20 years, having taken over as the company's CEO in 2021. Founded in 1974 in Minnesota, the insurance company is the fourth largest publicly traded US company in terms of sales, with a health insurance conglomerate valued at $560 billion.

After the CEO's death, several people joked about the incident and made puns about insurance company policies. "Sorry, but prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers" and "Does he have a history of shootings? Coverage denied" are some of the comments quoted by the New Yorker.

A denied health insurance claim can instantly change the trajectory of a life toward bankruptcy, misery, and death.

As New Yorker reporter Jia Tolentino explains, "for most Americans, a company like UnitedHealthcare is less about providing medical care than about actively preventing it."

According to data from ValuePenguin, a consumer advocacy website specializing in insurance, in 2023 the company had the highest denial rate of any private insurance company: 32%. The industry average is 16%.

"Thompson's murder is a symptom of the American appetite for violence; his business is something else... For people who don't have money or social connections to hospitals or the ability to spend weeks on the phone, a denied health insurance claim can instantly change the trajectory of a life toward bankruptcy, misery and death," Tolentino stressed.

Meanwhile, Arwa Mahdawi, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, posed the question: "If you found the person who killed Brian Thompson, would you a) turn him in to the police or b) go about your day happily?"

For Mahdawi, "99% of the United States would choose option b", given the "joyful reaction" to the death.

"There have been many shocking stories about how UnitedHealthcare has ruined people's lives by denying coverage. What there hasn't been is much sympathy for the insurer's 50-year-old CEO. In a country that can't agree on much, many people seem to agree on the Clarence Darrow quote: 'I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure,'" she wrote in an opinion piece on Saturday.

Explaining that "denying claims is apparently very lucrative" and that the CEO made more than $10 million in 2023, the author argued that "Thompson was the face of an unfair system that has screwed millions of people over" and that his death was the result of "anger against an unfair system in which the elite rarely seem to face any consequences for their actions."

The murder suspect fled the scene after the crime and used an electric bike to head to Central Park, where he was last seen by US authorities.

On Monday, five days after the authorities arrived, he was arrested at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania after being identified by an employee. He was Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old elite student, who is believed to have been motivated by the insurance company's policy.