How do you feel about Luigi Mangione? He’s the 26-year-old arrested for the shooting dead in Manhattan of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare.
Your natural first reaction might well be “How horrible”. The alleged gunman fired a number of shots into the back of Thompson , before, as they say, fleeing the scene. He was spotted in a McDonalds yesterday and arrested. He’s 26 and Thompson was 50.
On the face of it, it’s a stupid and cowardly murder, shooting an innocent man from behind. But a lot of people don’t see Brian Thompson as being innocent and a lot of people don’t see his killer as stupid or cowardly. The way Mangione figured it, something had to be done about “parasites” like Thompson.
Thompson certainly was very rich and did so through the illness or potential illness of others. He’s separated from his wife, but bought a $1million house to be near to his family. He had bank accounts totalling $64 million, as well as a salary of some $10 million a year from United Healthcare.
Interestingly, Mangione himself wasn’t short of a buck or two. He attended a private school which charged $38,000 a year and was the valedictorian at his class’s high school graduation. He attended an Ivy League university. He was good-looking and well-liked.
However, rich or not, Mangione thought something had to be done about the health insurance companies and he did something: he killed Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
Will he have achieved anything? Well, he’ll probably have jolted a lot of people around the world who don’t quite know the score about American health insurance.
An estimated 112 million (44%) of American adults struggle to pay for healthcare, and more than double that number (93%) feel that what they do pay is not worth the cost. But since your health can be a matter of life and death, most people put it top of the list, even if it’s not worth it.
That doesn’t mean Luigi Mangione did a good thing when he shot dead the CEO of Universal Healthcare. But equally, Universal Healthcare has gutted the finances of many Americans, and they were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones died. On second thoughts, scrap that ‘equally’.
It is UnitedHealth Care not Universal. Ironically if our health care were ‘universal’ (medicare for all) Thompson wouldn’t be the uber-wealthy parasite he was .
There are too many generalities here. One does not have to buy coverage from United. Then again ,is there not Some health responsibility on those seeking Medical coverage? Smoking and drinking heavily may contribute to out “. wellbeing”, but insurance does not include categories or degrees in relation to the coverage expected .Imagine if the insurance companies rewarded / penalized those who exercise and those who do not.
Should I be penalized/ rewarded for my health / fitness habits?