The shocking killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson rattled employees across Minnesota's health care industry. The company and some of its peers closed their campuses late last week — some of them in response to threats, others as a precaution.
Despite the brazen nature of Thompson's death — he was gunned down ahead of an investors' meeting in Manhattan last Wednesday — it was met with a shrug from some corners of the internet. And a lot of that has to do with the acute pain, both physical and emotional, people feel when their insurance claims get denied.
Paul Ginsberg, a health policy professional at the University of Southern California, told reporter Christopher Snowbeck that insurers have long been unpopular because "part of their job is not paying for care believed to be ineffective or low value."
“Perhaps in the age of social media, this is getting even more unpopular," he said. "We should consider whether the times call for performing this function in a more transparent manner.”
But what does that mean about the way we discuss Thompson's death?
Bil Schmidtknecht, whose son died because he couldn't afford to fill an asthma prescription medication, told Snowbeck that he feels for the slain CEO's family.
"I just lost my son ... I feel that pain for them," he said, adding, "but where’s the pain for Cole and everybody else in this country who’s being affected by the company the guy worked for? That’s how I think about it."
Snowbeck and business columnist Evan Ramstad unpacked the anger and frustration that have impacted the discourse surrounding Thompson's death. Read it all at the links below.
Related coverage
