The insurance industry was rattled on Dec. 4 by the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The 50-year-old was gunned down in Manhattan on his way to a health care conference; police believe his death was a targeted assassination, with New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch calling it a “premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.”
In the wake of Thompson’s death, widespread anger began brewing — not directed toward the suspected shooter, Luigi Mangione, but rather at Thompson and his company. Dozens of stories began circulating online of people whose insurance claims had reportedly been denied by UnitedHealthcare. While insurance companies try to keep these figures hidden, Forbes estimates that UnitedHealthcare refuses about one-third of submitted claims. Thompson’s alleged shooter reportedly wrote the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” on the bullets, a possible reference to the phrase “delay, deny, defend” commonly used by insurance industry critics.
Now some are left wondering if Thompson’s shooting will lead to change in the insurance industry, or if there will be a reckoning among the other CEOs of similar companies.
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While all insurance companies face criticism, the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s “shocking shooting has put new focus on the firm, its reputation and history,” said Jeremy Olson at The Minnesota Star Tribune. Thompson’s killing “became an opportunity for some to publicly vent about UnitedHealthcare,” Wendell Potter, a former Cigna vice president, said to the Star Tribune, largely because “nothing like this has ever happened before.”
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,” Jessica Glenza said at The Guardian. People appear to be “seeing violence as the more normal tool, or acceptable tool, to resolve what should be straightforward civil disputes resolved in nonviolent ways,” Robert Pape, the director of the University of Chicago’s security and threats project, said to the outlet.
The incident has “prompted patients and family members to weigh in publicly, sharing wrenching horror stories of insurance claim reimbursement stagnation and denials,” said Dionne Searcey and Madison Malone Kircher at The New York Times. However, Thompson was “one of the few executives who wanted to do something about it,” and “workers at the company had been aware for years that members were unhappy,” a UnitedHealthcare employee said to the outlet.
The insurance industry is “now watching the unfolding investigation with increasing concern, especially as its contentious business practices take center stage in the troubling situation,” said Katherine Davis at Crain’s Chicago Business. Insurance executives are aware that their “practices are creating a lot of friction, and we’re more than happy to work through those points of abrasion, but we can’t do that if people are fearing for their lives,” Laura Minzer, the CEO of the Illinois Life & Health Insurance Council, said to Crain’s. But “maybe out of this tragedy, comes an opportunity to have a more honest conversation about where the points of concern are.”
What next?
If the attack is confirmed to be related to insurance policies, it “could cause companies in the sector to make some changes,” Ron Culp, a DePaul University public relations consultant, said to Crain’s. Insurance companies “having to make sometimes life-or-death decisions will need to rethink how they communicate with customers,” and “empathy and potential alternative solutions will play greater roles.”
The shooting might also “deter highly qualified candidates from aspiring to the CEO position, particularly at polarizing companies, like, say, X, or in polarizing industries like insurance or armament manufacturing,” said Fortune.
Some are also wondering if the apparent indifference around Thompson’s killing is part of a trend that’s here to stay. Many comments online “in support of the suspect have been tinged with class rage and anti-corporate venom,” said The Wall Street Journal. While this type of class anger is not new, the “current outpouring is on a grander scale and fueled by social media.” To some, the shooting appears to be an “expression of the same broad-based populist eruption that has shaken American life in recent years.”
