The Americans who ‘just can’t feel sympathy’ for slain healthcare boss Brian Thompson

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/06/americans-sympathy-murdered-healthcare-boss/

Posted by TheTelegraph

42 comments

  1. Two years before [Brian Thompson](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/12/06/who-is-brian-thompson-health-insurance-lifer-low-profile/) was shot dead on the streets of New York, a post by the health insurance executives received a string of anguished, angry responses.

    “Making health care more affordable means more money in people’s pockets,” Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance unit, had written on LinkedIn. “That’s more important than ever right now. Reducing drug prices and improving price transparency are two ways we are working to lower costs for UnitedHealthcare members.”

    Underneath the post, there were few who praised the sentiment. “I’m curious, money in whose pockets?” wrote one user. “It seems members are not the primary recipients when the ratio of CEO to median employee pay is 30:1 and revenue increases over 10pc in a year.”

    Another spoke of how her 86-year-old mother’s healthcare plan had been terminated with no notice.

    “Do better,” said a woman who said she had been diagnosed with stage four cancer, but had been forced to end her insurance coverage after UnitedHealth denied her medications. “Every month there is a different reason for the denial. As of today, we are well over our max out of pocket for the year, having spent well over $20,000 [£16,000]. Since we are in our 60s – we don’t have time to recoup that.”

    Now, Thompson’s murder at the hands of [a masked assassin](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/12/05/brian-thompson-unitedhealthcare-seo-shot-dead/) has unleashed a further torrent of public anger in the US about the state of the country’s healthcare system.

    For some, sympathy appears to be in short supply. Within hours of the killing, videos appeared online in which nurses and patients posted horror stories of when they have had to deal with healthcare insurers. Under a video on CNN of the shooting, one commenter said: “Thoughts and deductibles to the family. Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.”

    A manhunt is still under way for the assailant in Thompson’s attack and their motive is unknown. However, [speculation has been mounting](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/12/05/health-insurance-executive-assassination-theories/) that he was targeted because of his work in the health insurance industry. Speaking to reporters this week, Thompson’s estranged wife suggested he had been the victim of threats in the past. She said these might have been over healthcare “coverage”.

    Evidence discovered on Thursday only added fuel to the theory that Thompson’s job has played a role in the attack. Law enforcement officials revealed that shell casings had been found at the crime scene emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose”.

    Some suggested this could be a reference to the tactics used by insurers to avoid paying out claims to patients, with a book published in 2010 titled Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.

    In the book, author Jay Feinman writes: “All insurance companies have an incentive to chisel their customers in order to increase profits.”

    Frustration with the state of the US healthcare system has been building for years. Speaking in April, senator Bernie Sanders said: “It is a system not designed to provide health care to all people in a cost-effective way. It is a system designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies, the drug companies, and many other industries within the system.” He claimed this system was “totally broken”.

    **Read more from The Telegraph:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/06/americans-sympathy-murdered-healthcare-boss/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/06/americans-sympathy-murdered-healthcare-boss/)

  2. Well, the insurance industry has certainly never shown sympathy for Americans, so it definitely wouldn’t be deserved.

  5. I wonder how many deaths and bankruptcies can be attributed to United Health denials.

  6. I don’t feel sympathy for him. I have a good friend who is battling terminal cancer and they (UHC) have denied tens of thousands of dollars in claims. They also will not approve a scan to see if the cancer has progressed calling it not medically necessary. It’s not surprising this happened to him.

  7. it’s absurd and insulting to the public to question why they have no sympathy for the devil. A media that still wont acknowledge the devil (who sponsors them btw) has no right to question the public.

  8. Hard to sympathize when a persons greed causes their own demise. If this asshole had a heart instead of a bank account and ran his company honestly. He would still be alive.

  9. If I see him I’m helping him and I didn’t see shit.

  10. Personally, I feel like you shouldn’t kill people.

    Might raise your chances of being assassinated.

  11. Those type don’t feel bad for all the people starving or homeless while the sit in their guarded mansions. Why should we..

  12. Snitches get stitches that won’t be paid for

  15. Zero sympathy. The industry caused this shit by prioritizing profits to a degree that marginalizes human life. So no tears shed when we marginalize your lives.

    Other verticals are next — Looking at you, Big Pharma

  16. I was thinking he was the asswipe who got a $100 million bonus and bought a private zoo for his daughter the same year that they let my neighbor die because they refused to replace his pacemaker – but apparently that was the previous douchebag CEO.

  21. It’s not just the healthcare insurance companies. It’s all insurances. My parents got screwed over on home insurance claims when high winds damaged the roof of their home. Never made a claim for anything in the lifespan of the house but for that, they had to. Insurance denied the claim saying it was “wear and tear”. Forced my parents to shell out nearly $50k to repair the damage out of pocket. Car insurance is just as bad. The whole “for profit” industry is just a huge scam on Americans.

  22. Sorry, my field of fucks is barren, so i have none to give.

  23. But everybody in America thinks that universal health care is socialism.

  27. The Telegraph is a Conservative British publication.

    Even they think our health care system is bonkers.

  30. The denied rate of UHC is 30%+… And he is a CEO, yeah the POS 100% have something to do with it.

    Do I feel bad for his kids? Of course.

    Do I feel bad for this POS human garbage? FUCK NO

  31. This asshole was pulling in $10 million+ per year, most likely engaging in insider trading, and made his name in insurance by implementing policies designed to deny customers lifesaving medical attention. 

    Why the fuck should anyone feel sympathy for him?

  32. Health insurance is such a scam. Are we to weep for the death of con artists? 

    I’d even say this was inevitable, and we’ll likely see more of it in the future

  33. Gonna be hard for any jury to convict, if the gunman is ever even found. I’d say almost everyone has had a claim/claims denied, or knows someone who has. Very little sympathy to be had for someone whose salary was based upon purposely denying much-needed healthcare to so many people. 

  34. Eat the Rich! I watched my dying father spend 500k in savings that could have helped my mother survive for the rest of her life or at least helped her sustain herself. His insurance was charging him 22k a month for an oral chemo and a bone shielding med. they exhausted his savings and then decided to give him a grant for the cost of his meds until the day he died. What was the use of even having insurance? They sucked him dry and then sucked the system dry for him. Shits not right…

  37. He was personally profiting from heading a health care company where a lot of people felt frustrated and screwed over life and death issues. So yeah there’s not a lot of sympathy for him.

  40. This guy’s compensation was around $10M/year, and UHC denies 1 in 3 claims, yet profited $91 BILLION over the last year.

    It’s not that people don’t feel compassion for a fellow human in general. It’s just he’s the symbol of a company whose entire line of work is to bleed compassion dry and leave people destitute despite paying into the system as often as possible to maximize shareholder profits.

    And he’s the guy who’s the head of all that.

    When you’ve refused 1 in 3 claims, you’ve hurt a LOT of people. Asking them to feel bad about this seems a bit much.

  41. I have sympathy for this guy, and it’s the exact same amount of sympathy he had for the thousands of people who died, suffered, or went bankrupt unnecessarily due to UHC’s policies.

  42. sorri but i have determined that sympathy is an unnecessary procedure

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