Some thoughts on the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson

The shooting to death of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare, outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4 has generated a lot of comment online about what we might judiciously call responsibility in the corporate environment.

While we would all agree that murder can never be justified, a lot of people have taken to social networks to express their frustration about what increasingly seems to be the motive for the killing: United Healthcare is a company with a long history of using algorithms to systematically deny coverage for treatment supposed covered by its policies based on a strategy of “Delay, Deny, Defend”. The gunman is reported to have written “deny”, “defend” and “depose” on the bullet casings.

This makes it clear, firstly, that the murder was planned, and secondly, that it relates to United Healthcare’s cost-cutting strategy. The killer, who spent several days in Manhattan meticulously planning it and fled the crime scene on a municipal electric bike, has not been located.

Mr. Thompson’s family and colleagues, as well as a number of politicians, have described him in glowing terms, but it seems clear that many, many people people are angry at the way the country’s health insurers operate, as this comment on X shows:

When you shoot one man…