Insurance executives are unlovely people. They're easy to hate, easy to mock, and easy to spit on if you ever see them in public.
But to blame them and wish them dead for their companies not covering a procedure or an operation is not only ignorant and illogical; it's beyond the pale of civilized behavior. We don't countenance killing people for any reason beyond that which the law allows.
Holding an insurance executive responsible for anyone's death presupposes that 1) he personally knew that the denial of a procedure would result in the death of the specific patient and 2) there was no compelling reason to deny authorization for the procedure.
Ignorance about how an insurance company manages claims is widespread. Perhaps if we knew that insurance fraud costs businesses and consumers more than $300 billion every year, we might look to understand some of the reasons claims are denied.
Whatever those reasons are, only a barbarian cheers the death of someone for any reason. Taylor Lorenz, the former Washington Post columnist and current podcaster of some note, appears to be playing the role of Brunhild in some Norse saga.
"And people wonder why we want these executives dead," Lorenz wrote hours after Thompson's murder. She posted that on BlueSky linking to a post that BlueCross BlueShield would no longer cover anesthesia for the entire length of some surgeries.
Lorenz also posted an image of Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Kim Keck with a similar article on both Bluesky and X.
She reposted another user who wrote, "[H}ypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat to start emailing other insurance CEOs a simple ‘you're next’? Completely unrelated to current events btw."
She later seemed to defend the harsh posts, claiming there’s "very justified hatred" against CEOs for the "amount of death and suffering" for which they allegedly bear responsibility.
"People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it," Lorenz wrote.
"Justified hatred"? Who says it's "justified" to kill someone? How easily we slough off the thin veneer of civilized behavior to satisfy our more animalistic impulses.
Note that Lorenz brags about being "someone against death and suffering." What evidence is there that Mr. Thompson is in favor of death and suffering? Just incredible.
People dunking on the murder of others complaining about 'the trolls.' https://t.co/4T44FIIGQn pic.twitter.com/fCeLRihWBD
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) December 5, 2024
Nia Prater of New York Magazine interviewed people about the Thompson assassination and discovered a well of hate so deep that ordinary people expressed a desire that other insurance company executives would meet the same fate.
“Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…. wait, I’m sorry — today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires,” one popular post on X read.
Another on Reddit said, “I hope he still gets an ambulance bill that UHC refuses to pay.”
UnitedHealth Group’s Facebook post sharing its statement on Thompson’s death received more than 46,000 reactions, with about 41,000 of respondents clicking the platform’s “haha” option displaying a laughing emoji.
The bonds that hold our civilization together are fraying. How far are we from living in a world where killing people we think "deserve it" is justified?
The assassination of Thompson brings us closer to that world.
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