Social Media Unleashes Cruel Responses to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder

—
Posts show frustrations with the U.S. health insurance industry

by
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today
December 5, 2024

In the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, some commenters on social media posted savage replies — a signal of the disdain many hold for America’s health insurance industry.

“Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network,” read one comment. Others included, “Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” and “Prior authorization is needed for thoughts and prayers.”

Even on r/medicine, moderators reportedly had to delete a thread on the murder.

The first response to the post is a mock coverage denial letter for treatment for a gunshot wound. Immediately following is a mock reply to an appeal, that reads, in part, “Your plan explicitly excludes coverage for injuries resulting from ‘unapproved use of firearms.’ As no evidence was provided to confirm the shooting was accidental or unavoidable, we are unable to overturn this aspect of the denial.”

Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH, posted on X that people were retweeting a satirical video made by medical internet personality Dr. Glaucomflecken about how to ace an interview with UnitedHealthcare. It paints doctors who apply to work for the company as being motivated by money, and taking advantage of people to get it.

Prasad suggested Glaucomflecken’s criticism “may have gotten someone murdered” — to which Glaucomflecken replied, “I don’t get offended easily, but implying that my content is responsible for somebody’s murder is pretty offensive … and tasteless.”

Few posts on X when searching for “Thompson” try to temper the outpouring of hatred. “Brian was a genuinely nice guy with a family,” one read. “Celebrating the death of a man because he heads a business you don’t like is disgraceful.”

Another read, “Just a reminder that Thompson … was a human being with a family. So many of the comments on his murder are despicable.”

Spewing such hatred in the wake of a death may be an indicator of just how frustrated Americans have become with the healthcare system, and health insurers in particular.

In a recent KFF poll, about two-thirds of Americans said health insurance companies deserve “a lot of blame” for high healthcare costs. A KFF poll from last year found that while most people gave their health insurance an overall rating of “excellent” or “good,” the majority also said they experienced a problem using their insurance in the past year, including denied claims and pre-authorization problems.

Coverage denials and frustrations come as health insurers pull in substantial amounts of money. UnitedHealthcare brought in more than $281 billion in revenue last year, and Thompson received more than $10 million in compensation last year, according to the New York Times. That included $1 million in base pay, along with cash and stock grants.

Thompson was shot Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan as he was walking to the annual investor day for parent company UnitedHealth Group. Bullets recovered from the crime scene had the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on them — which may be an allusion to a book titled Delay, Deny, Defend, which describes the health insurance industry’s tactics to stall care delivery.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.