In the days since the December 4 th alleged murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson in New York City by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, social media commentary has been brutal against health insurance companies, prompting removal of CEO and board members’ pictures from online sites, cancellations of board meetings, and heightened security measures. Many were shocked that 41% of young people condoned Mangione’s action.
Shell casings with the words “deny, defend, depose” written on them were found at the murder site, further fanning anti-corporatist fury as these words were directly related to the delay, deny, defend tactics used by insurance companies to increase their profit margins. Nationally, the rate of denials has been one out of every 6 claims. Nearly a quarter of physicians reported that these requirements led to an adverse event for a patient. These delays have led to so many needless deaths as happened to 17 year old Natalie Sarkisyan when her liver transplant was first denied, then delayed. Her brother was a perfect match and ready to give her a portion of his liver so she could have lived.
In the 5 days leading up to Mangione’s capture, rumors and misleading explanations of the motive were spawned, promoted to an extent by Mangione’s Manifesto and monopoly money found in his abandoned backpack and the ghost gun which was recovered.
- Right wing commentator Keith Hanson for Fox News found a left wing plot in the action: “the anger is always directed at corporate America because that’s the tenets of Marxism, that these people somehow are controlling the wealth and controlling the means of creating additional wealth. It’s straight out of Marx and Engels.” He called the action the next wave of Occupy Wall Street 2.0.
- According to an article in the Daily Mail: “Luigi Mangione executed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood as an ‘act of war’ after the company ‘violated’ its contract with his mother who suffered years of excruciating pain and expense following a diagnosis of severe neuropathy.”
- But is it true? Though spelled out in his manifesto, there is no indication from interviews with his mother that this was the case. She and his family are members of a wealthy Baltimore family, so it seems very unlikely.
- Luigi himself had severe back pain that required surgery in 2023, though it is unknown if he was ever denied care, as he alleged happened to his mother.
- Luigi Mangione is a privileged young man from a prominent Baltimore family with an engineering degree. There is no evidence that he was tied to any political group.
To cite Michael Moore, producer of the 2007 movie “Sicko” and referenced in Mangione’s Manifesto: “this anger is not about the killing of a CEO….it is about the mass death and misery—the physical pain, the mental abuse, the medical debt, the bankruptcies in the face of denied claims and denied care and bottomless deductibles on top of ballooning premiums—that this ‘health care’ industry has levied against the American people for decades. With no one standing in their way! Just a government—two broken parties—enabling this INDUSTRY’s theft and, yes, murder.”
As the New year, the inauguration of President Trump, and the implementation of Project 2025 approach, we have to acknowledge and address the anger, sense of betrayal, and deep-seated confusion that so many Americans feel. In times like these it seems natural to grasp for dramatic and bold leaders as Trump/ Musk portray themselves to be—or audacious assassins like Luigi Mangione.
We have to look deeper below the surface during these troubling times that we are coming upon. Whose interests are being served? Who is our friend and who is our enemy? Are the 800 billionaires and 6 million millionaires in this country really our friends? What about the 140 million Americans who are living in poverty, some getting $7.25 federal minimum wage?
As Michael Moore would say, no one should die for lack of health care. We can extend it further. No one should die from lack of food, housing, education, or a polluted environment either.
We need to be ready for the challenge. It’s our country, not the billionaires’ and their corporations.
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