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The shooting to death of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare, outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4 has generated a lot of comment online about what we might judiciously call responsibility in the corporate environment.
While we would all agree that murder can never be justified, a lot of people have taken to social networks to express their frustration about what increasingly seems to be the motive for the killing: United Healthcare is a company with a long history of using algorithms to systematically deny coverage for treatment supposed covered by its policies based on a strategy of “Delay, Deny, Defend”. The gunman is reported to have written “deny”, “defend” and “depose” on the bullet casings.
This makes it clear, firstly, that the murder was planned, and secondly, that it relates to United Healthcare’s cost-cutting strategy. The killer, who spent several days in Manhattan meticulously planning it and fled the crime scene on a municipal electric bike, has not been located.
Mr. Thompson’s family and colleagues, as well as a number of politicians, have described him in glowing terms, but it seems clear that many, many people people are angry at the way the country’s health insurers operate, as this comment on X shows:
When you shoot one man in the street it’s murder. When you kill thousands of people in hospitals by taking away their ability to get treatment you’re an entrepreneur.”
Others refer to the insurer’s behavior, with comments such as:
“My copay for thoughts and prayers is $100,000–
I heard that his condition was pre-existing–
I was denied the ability to care for him–
My compassion requires a bypass–
My claim of condolences filed was denied.”
Or this one, on the company’s Facebook group, already deleted:
“I would offer thoughts and prayers, but they’re not covered because they’re out of network.”
Or this one, which points to the motive:
“Of course, murder is bad. The jokes about United’s CEO are not really about him, but about the rapacious health care system he personified and for which Americans feel deep pain and humiliation.”
Shocking? Of course. Premeditating a murder, approaching someone from behind and shooting them dead is what it is. But it is also important to reflect on the result of certain business strategies, on the frustration generated by not being able to count on a justice system that really puts things in their place and that really purges responsibilities, with a management system that puts profits first, allowing planes to crash, than for a sick person to be denied treatment or for a planet to be destroyed… “I was following orders”, “my duty is to maximize profits for my shareholders” or “the cause-effect relationship is not clear.”
Murder can never be justified. But the solution is neither to increase the expenses in personal security for your executives or to hide their personal details from your web page. It seems clear that for many people, when the actions of certain managers in some companies generate incalculable consequences that ruin lives, we should not be surprised that in an increasingly polarized society and in which the echo chambers of social networks disproportionately multiply our frustrations and despair, we see events like this.
(En español, aquí)
And if you prefer to listen to a couple of AI-generated hosts discussing this article, here’s your chance to do so… they are entertaining and they can definitely can help expand the viewpoints on it (that’s the only AI-generated thing you’ll find in my articles, and I’m doing it as an experiment)
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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The post Some Thoughts on the Killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson appeared first on The Good Men Project.