Thoughts and Prayers Are Out of Network

It's been a week since a man walked out of his New York City hotel into the path of bullets that took his life.  

The cold blooded murder of a man should be cause for condemnation of violence and lamentations for a stolen life.

Large swaths of the internet felt differently about this man, Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare.  

Comments on stories about Thompson's murdered provide a lot of snark.

"Sorry, thoughts and prayers are out of network." 

"I can't offer sympathy without prior approval."  

"I haven't completed the required forms to care about this."

Stuff like that.

When Andrea heard that people where not reacting to the murder of a man with rage over the violence or sadness over the loss of life, she couldn't understand how people feel that way.

I do not condone the murder of anyone.  Hell, I do not want even Donald Trump to be killed.  He needs to suffer what all the shit he's done but being murdered would be the easy way out. I want him to live long enough to be reduced to irrelevance... but I digress.  

But for the indifference or disdain for the murder of Brian Thompson, well, I get it. 

Thompson was emblematic of the growing disparity of wealth between the wealthiest Americans and the poorest. And he accrued his wealth running a multi-billion dollar health insurer which is notorious for the rejection of claims.  

The health insurer industry average for rejected claims is 16%. The industry leader at 32% is United Healthcare.   

There were reports of United using an AI driven program  to summarily reject claims out of hand. 

The process for appealing rejected claims can be very time consuming, troublesome and frequently futile.  

Click here for the story on one woman's frustrating journey to get much needed brain surgery for her daughter. 

We may not have to like Brian Thompson. From what I've read about the man prior to his fateful encounter with murder last week, I don't think I would have.

Still, this man was murdered. This is a crime not to be condoned or celebrated.  

Luigi Mangione was arrested to answer for his crime.  He attempted to justify it in a manifesto. “I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”   

Mangione wrote that health insurers "continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play.  Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

Luigi Mangione was not wrong about health insurers.

But he was wrong to think he can address these wrongs with another wrong of murder in the street.  

No matter how contemptible the victim of that murder might be.