Brian Thompson was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare until he was shot dead this week. CEOs and politicians are mourning Thompson’s death, but millions of people in the United States and around the world are not weeping.
There has been an outpouring of memes about Thompson, United Healthcare and the whole rotten system of health care. Even on Facebook, which is less dominated by aggressive trolling than the more anonymous social media, by December 6th there were approximately 35,000 reactions with the laughing emoji on the official Facebook post by UnitedHealth Group, with only 2,200 were the sad emoji. Since then, UnitedHealth Group has limited visibility of the responses.
Thompson’s death—and the public response to it—have shone a light on the sordid world of healthcare in the US. Social media has been awash with people sharing their experiences at the hands of health insurance companies and outrage at the large profits that they grab.
One commenter wrote, “Can’t find the room to care over my daughter’s $60,000 cancer treatment. Thoughts and prayers.” Another comment read, “Does he have a history of shootings? Denied coverage.””.
Building Resentment
The response was not just from patients, healthcare workers joined in. One commented on Reddit: “I work at a gastroenterology center in billing, and I have actually had to argue with UHC because they didn’t want to deem a procedure for a man who had been shot in the stomach as ‘emergent.’ I hate insurance companies. Insurance is a literal scam.” The comment received close to 2 thousand likes, and many replies with similar stories.
A majority of Americans find managing healthcare time-consuming and overwhelming, and nearly three-quarters say it’s failing to meet their needs, according to a Harris poll for Physician Associates. A KFF survey this year found about half find it difficult to afford health care costs. A majority reported some kind of problem, including out-of-network providers, denied claims, or lack of pre-authorization. People in poorer health reported more problems. A 2023 AMA survey found that 94% of physicians surveyed said that prior authorizations lead to delays in receiving care and 80% said they have led to patients abandoning treatment. One older survey found 13% of Americans knew a family member or close friend who had recently died after not being able to afford treatment.
A Profiteering Industry
For many, the killing of Thompson was a political act of resistance to the corrupt, life-denying, profiteering of the health insurance industry. The shell casings discovered after the shooting had the words “deny,” “depose,” and, “defend” written on them. They echoed a phrase commonly used to describe insurers’ tactics to avoid paying claims.
As Branko Marcetic pointed out, the popular outpouring of hate towards the insurance industry came from the left, right and center. Yet opposition from both Republican and Democratic politicians to proposals for a public health insurance plan like Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” often claimed that people are too attached to their private health insurance.
Public insurance would be a great step forward for the United States, where 79 million have problems with medical bills or debt (and 20 million people have “significant” medical debt), which helps push families further into poverty or homelessness. This all while America’s largest health insurers raked in more than $41 billion of profits in 2022. But similar issues are present throughout HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and the entire for-profit health system, none of which is run for human needs. Under capitalism, not just insurance policies but health itself is treated as a commodity.
UnitedHealthcare
Thompson made about $10 million from United Healthcare last year, and similar amounts in recent previous years. His so-called “net worth” was estimated at $43 million, including UnitedHealth Group stock.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest private insurer in the US. UnitedHealth is a huge company with interests in insurance, health care providers, pharmacy services and health data. The UnitedHealth Group was worth $474.3 billion as of July 15, 2024, and reported more than $16 billion in operating profits last year.
It grabbed those obscene profits by denying people the health care they are entitled to, ripping off government health care programs and through corrupt business dealings.
More than 200 million Americans are covered by private health insurance. But insurers reject at least 1 in 7 claims and the appeals process is notoriously difficult. Insurers have wide discretion in deciding what is covered by their policies.
Company doctors often recommend cheaper and less effective medications and arbitrarily decide treatments to be not “medically necessary.”
Brian Thompson was part of an investigation into insider trading earlier this year. The Department of Justice began an inquiry into why executives at UnitedHealthcare sold $101 million in stocks, including Thompson who sold $15 million, before the public became aware of the investigation.
UnitedHealthcare spends millions of dollars lobbying governments. Last year, the group spend over $10 million on lobbying politicians. This is money that should be spent on health care. Back in 2009, when the Affordable Care Act was being discussed in Congress, UnitedHealth Group spent close to $5 million to political candidates and groups.
UnitedHealthcare spends millions to block policies it doesn’t like—then it finds ways to exploit the new regulations. In July 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth was the worst offender among private insurers who invented fake diagnoses to grab larger payments from the government’s Medicare Advantage program. Diagnoses added by UnitedHealth for diseases patients were never treated for made the company $8.7 billion in 2021—over half of its net income of over $17 billion for that year.
A 2021 New York Times report identified UnitedHealth in a list of Medicare insurers accused of overbilling. Executives at UnitedHealth Group told workers to mine old medical records for more illnesses and invent diseases to inflate bills picked up by the government.
UnitedHealthcare has purchased more than 35 healthcare companies over the last 10 years. In February 2022, UnitedHealth announced the acquisition of Change Healthcare, the largest health payments platform in the US, which the US Justice Department tried to block on antitrust grounds – the sale went through by September.
In January, the health news site STAT published a detailed investigation into how NaviHealth, a UnitedHealthcare subsidiary, used algorithms to deny care for seniors enrolled in the company’s Medicare advantage plan. The company is now fighting a class action suit over this alleged use of A.I. to deny claims.
Earlier this year over 100 people gathered outside the Minnesota headquarters of UnitedHealthcare to protest against the insurance firm’s policies and denial of patient claims.
The scandals associated with UnitedHealthcare have been going on for decades. In late 2021, a doctor’s network, TeamHealth, sued UnitedHealthcare in Nevada, alleging the insurer underpaid claims. In November 2021, a jury unanimously found United guilty of “oppression, fraud, and malice” and awarded TeamHealth $2.65 million in compensatory damages.
In 2019, UnitedHealthcare paid a $1 million penalty to settle Pennsylvania regulators’ allegations. They said the company violated state and federal laws when paying medical claims, particularly for patients seeking treatment for autism and substance use disorders.
In the same year, three addiction and mental health treatment centers sued UnitedHealthcare’s mental health subsidiary. They alleged that the company wrongfully denied millions in health treatment claims to 50,000 patients. In January 2023, an appeal court issued a ruling which held that the company had violated both its financial duty and put the interests of the company before that of the patients.
Part of a Sick System
Another company, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, dropped plans to time and limit the use of anesthesia in many surgeries and procedures. The new policy would have meant patients would not know if they would be stuck with massive bills until they woke up after surgery. The company dropped the plans after an investigative report was published by The Lever, and during the outpouring of anger after Thompson’s murder.
UnitedHealthcare has inflicted misery, suffering and premature death on those who depended on it. It is part of a sick system which profits from human misery. One really sad thing about Thompson’s murder is the ease with which he will be replaced.
Marx21 US 