“The US public response to the murder speaks volumes about Americans’ widespread disgust with a profit-driven health care system that leaves so many destitute or simply dead.” — Branko Marcetic
Editor’s Note: Below are excerpts from a New York Times Opinion piece, an article in Jacobin.com, along with commentary from the People’s Tribune. As this is being published, a suspect in the killing has been arrested.
In a New York Times Opinion piece entitled, The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms, author Zeynep Tufekci discusses the unprecedented mass outrage at the health insurance companies’ denial of health care in the following excerpts:
“On a prominent Reddit forum for medical professionals, one of the most upvoted comments was a parody rejection letter: After “a careful review of the claim submitted for emergency services on December 4, 2024,” it read, a claim was denied because “you failed to obtain prior authorization before seeking care for the gunshot wound to your chest . . . Just a few days earlier the forum had been a place where people debated the side effects of Flomax and the best medical conferences. “I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.”
Comparing it to earlier periods in US history which gave rise to outpourings of anger at large corporations, Tufekci discusses the differences between then and now: “Today’s business culture enshrines the maximization of executive wealth and shareholder fortunes, and has succeeded in leveraging personal riches into untold political influence. New communication platforms allow millions of strangers around the world to converse in real time.”
Read the entire article here.
In a Jacobin article entitled, American’s Hate Their Private Health Insurance by Branko Marcetic, a multitude of quotes further illustrating the public’s outrage points out that the response to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder, “surely disproves the claim that Americans love the private health insurance system,” adding that “it’s a political force waiting to be harnessed…”
For example:
“A person recounted how he suspected that UHC had made a deal with his former employer, AT&T, to exclude his jaw surgery from coverage, because his surgeon had had at least thirteen patients with the company that year and seen similar denials. Despite being told he ‘would lose the ability to chew by [his] forties,’ he couldn’t get the surgery, and now, at forty-two, he can only eat certain foods while in extreme pain and is worried about the possible side effects of retrying the procedure at an older age. ‘So, I won’t outright say how I feel but you might guess it.’”
“For the first time in two decades, a majority of Americans rate US health care as substandard, including a new high calling it ‘poor.’ Nearly three-quarters say it’s failing to meet their needs, and about half find it difficult to afford their medical bills. A majority have had some kind of problem — denied claims, for instance, or issues with provider networks or pre-authorization — with their insurance, and even bigger majorities feel insurers aren’t transparent about what they cover, or think insurance bills or the various payments they have to make to insurers are not easy to understand . . . The fact that this is the US public response, en masse, to the murder of a human being speaks volumes about Americans’ widespread disgust with a profit-driven health care system that leaves so many destitute or simply dead.”
Read the entire article here.
From the People’s Tribune:
This outrage described above from all types of people was repeated in thousands more stories. Fox News reported this from a doctor: “I’ve been a surgeon for almost a decade and I see patients suffer daily because insurance companies put profits over healthcare every time — something that I find morally abhorrent.”
And, angry commentary, along with a flurry of responses is happening at X’s rival, Bluesky, as expressed from a cartoonist: “The reward out for the person who shot United Healthcare’s CEO isn’t even enough to cover 1/9th of the bill we got for 28 days of radiation,” cartoonist Marie Enger wrote on the platform, receiving thousands of likes.
We at the People’s Tribune would like to add to the debate — which is clearly about morality and humanity versus a system based on the ever-increasing profits of the few — that partisan politics and the cultivated divisions among the American people was not seen in the discussions. Millions need quality, affordable health care. Perhaps this is in itself ground breaking.
One immediate step millions of people could take is to join the movement for Medicare For All! See https://medicare4all.org for information on the Medicare For All Campaign. Given the level of outrage we’re seeing, the possibility of actually achieving a public health care program for all, not based on the profit motive, may finally be possible.
Photo is from United Nurses for Healthcare, an organization at the forefront of the fight for Medicare for All. Astronomical health care costs and lack of access continue to drive individuals, families, and businesses past their breaking point while insurance companies continue to soak-up billions of health care dollars as millions of children’s basic needs go unmet. Medicare has provided guaranteed health care for millions of seniors for more than 51 years. It’s time we have a Medicare for all, single-payer health care system that would end health disparities, effectively control costs, and assure that everyone has equal access to an excellent standard of care. It’s time we have an improved Medicare type system for all.
