Killing of insurance CEO highlights understanding of systemic violence
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in midtown Manhattan, ahead of the company’s investor’s day.
The bullets recovered at the scene had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” written on them in marker, a reference to the tactics used by insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare to deny claims. UnitedHealthcare has recently started to use artificial intelligence to make these decisions. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) released a report that stated before AI, the company’s prior authorization denial rate for post-acute care was 10.9%. After the company started using AI, it jumped to 22.7%.
The most striking part of this story has been the public response, which has been almost universally apathetic. Just look at the comments section of any video or news story about this event at random, and you’ll find messages like these.
“I can’t see any images of the suspect. Vision isn’t covered on my plan."
“Lead poisoning. Claim denied.”
“Seems unsolvable. Let’s move on.”
And to my amazement, this tone was mirrored in right wing circles. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro attempted to paint this incident as a result of left-wing politics in his podcast episode entitled “The EVIL Revolutionary Left Cheers Murder!” His comments section was completely against him. Top comments included:
“Hate to break it to you, buddy, but it’s not just the Left who is sick of this” (3.3k likes)
“This isn’t a left vs right issue. It’s a working class vs the wealthy and that’s probably why you’re trying to pretend it’s something it’s not” (5.3k likes)
“I just realized your entire business model requires that us normal folk hate eachother” (7.5k likes)
What is happening here? It is not simply a hatred of CEOs. After all, many business leaders are celebrated in the United States. They are made celebrities. Sometimes, they can even be elected to the highest public office.
What underlies all of this response is the American awareness of systemic violence, even if they cannot yet call it by that name.
Visceral violence (the one we are most familiar with) is when a health insurance CEO is killed in a brazen attack in front of a hotel in New York. Systemic violence is when a health insurance system exists to make profits, and in pursuit of that goal, denies coverage resulting in death. In the latter case, there is no murderer. There is no smoking gun to find. But the system is allowed to live on.
UnitedHealthcare made $6 billion in profits the third quarter of this year. The company makes profits by denying claims. How many lives did that $6 billion cost?
People also observe the police response to this killing, and compare it to their own situation. The manhunt for Thompson’s killer has involved police officers, detectives, dogs, helicopters, security footage, and collaboration with police departments in other states. If the person killed was not a CEO, and was instead someone from the working class, the search would not be this expansive, even if the killing was just as targeted. It is another reminder to people that the system as it stands does not exist for them.
If political parties are supporting systemic violence while it takes place, they should be made to defend those systems during elections. Republicans can win votes by talking about transgender people in bathrooms, or “wokeness.” But a better political environment would insist that they explain why it is a social good that health insurance companies make billions in profits while Americans are denied care, or made bankrupt by expensive procedures. Democrats are not immune from this criticism either, as higher ups in the Party seem insistent on not pursuing universal healthcare.
Americans now know how they feel, collectively, about systemic violence. They think it is just as egregious as visceral violence. What was once dormant is now awake. If this feeling stays alive, politics will be forever changed. The only question that remains is whether we can keep our eyes open.
