Healthcare, Business and Society
Corporate Power and Public Outrage: Lessons from the UnitedHealthcare Shooting
The shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot by Luigi Mangione, has set off a debate over corporate power and public frustration with the healthcare industry. Because there’s a controversy of course surrounding Mangione: His manifesto criticized healthcare companies for putting profits before patient care. Extreme though they may have been, reflect a broader growing dissatisfaction among Americans who have felt left behind by a profit driven healthcare system. Such a sad event reminds us why ignoring mounting public resentment is so dangerous.
Mangione’s manifesto speaks to those who have become dissatisfied with the lack of systemic equity in healthcare and that a large number of people are rightly disillusioned that the industry truly puts corporate earnings before the welfare of the patient. It is a grim reminder to many of the price of subordinating the human need to financial interests.
In my recent article, “Corporate Power and Public Outrage: The Ripple Effect” I looked at how public perception can be turned around dramatically as a result of perceived corporate injustices. Thompson’s shooting is a testament to the risks corporations run when they ignore growing dissatisfactions.
