When I first heard about the assassination of United Healthcare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson, I have to admit I did not feel much sympathy. Although I would never condone murder, I have held animosity towards UHC since they caused the death of Carrie Ann Lucas, a friend who was a lawyer, a disability rights activist, and a mother of four adopted disabled children, when they denied her a medication she needed.
Apparently, I was not the only one who harbored this anger. The response online was “brutal” as my daughter described it.
“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,” said an X user.
“Thoughts and deductibles to the family. Unfortunately, my condolences are out-of-network,” another posted.
Clearly, there is a wellspring of anger at an insurance company that denies 32% of claims while its top executives take home millions of dollars in compensation a year (Brian Thompson was making over $10 million a year).
But our anger should be directed at our broken profit-based system, not at individual executives – if there’s a way to make a buck, someone will always step up.
After the murder of Brian Thompson, it became public that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield planned to no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure takes. They reversed their decision after public outcry. We do have power.
A poll in 2020 found that 69% of American voters favor a universal single-payer healthcare system. With the upcoming administration, this may be an unachievable goal in the next few years, but states (or a group of states) could enact a single-payer system. Canada’s healthcare system was started in one province – Saskatchewan – in 1947 and then spread to the other provinces. So, please direct your anger by connecting with local efforts to enact single-payer healthcare – check with One Payer States, a national organization, or organizations in your local community who are working on this issue. This is the best way to fix our broken system.
See Corbett O’Toole’s memory of Carrie Ann Lucas: Creating a Disabled Family: The Life of Carrie Ann Lucas, Disability Visibility Project, February 26, 2018