WWhen the CEO of one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States was gunned down on the streets of Manhattan on Wednesday, his death quickly sparked a larger conversation about the much-despised industry in which he worked.

Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, had been in New York City for a conference when he was killed in what police said was a targeted shooting.

Among the hundreds of social media posts about the shocking murder, many people were moved to speak out about the injustice of the health insurance industry. The dark jokes on X, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok were often about how cruel health insurance companies can be to their customers. Some even wrote folk songs about the event.

“The bullet hit the CEO outside of his allotted performance window, so he is not eligible for emergency treatment.” wrote a person on X in response to a post about the murder.

One Reddit user wrote: “A man is dead and no one really cares.” Huh. Sounds business as usual for United Health, right?”

An announcement on UnitedHealthcare’s Facebook page announcing Thompson’s death drew 42,000 laugh emoji reactions as of Thursday afternoon.

Others shared personal stories about how the health insurance industry denied their loved ones coverage or burdened them with debt.

“His company left several of my family members in debt that they will pay for the rest of their lives and denied care for my uncle, which led to his death. Brian Thompson killed people. Period, stop,” one person wrote.

“I remember the day United Healthcare denied a one-night hospital stay for my 12-year-old child as ‘medically unnecessary’ following ASD heart surgery,” he wrote another.

The reaction has parallels with celebrations over the death of Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state whom many Americans blamed for bombings in Cambodia that killed hundreds of thousands of people. When he died in November 2023, social media was also flooded with memes celebrating his death.

As repugnant as they may be, the reaction to Thompson’s killing has shown that many Americans are deeply angered by the unfairness of the U.S. health insurance industry. And among those who spoke out were doctors, professors, politicians and people who themselves had been denied insurance.

“Currently, over 1,000 people are going bankrupt every day due to personal medical bills alone. “Anyone who can make millions of dollars and sleep well at night by overseeing a system like this does not deserve my sympathy,” said Beau Forte, a former Green Party candidate for Congress in New Jersey who ran on a platform that included demanded universal health care The Independent.

Forte, who ran for office because his father was unable to receive health insurance coverage after a series of illnesses, was among the hundreds who posted viral tweets excoriating Thompson after his death.

“How is it appropriate to ask me if I feel bad about the person who runs the largest company allowing something like this to happen if it makes me feel bad?” Sorry if that seems harsh, but I stand by it,” he added.

Forte was not alone.

“Today we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot… Wait, I’m sorry – today we mourn the death of the 68,000 Americans who die needlessly every year, so insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can do that.” Become multi-millionaires”, wrote a professor at Columbia University in a post that garnered 3.5 million views.

The response comes amid growing complaints from consumers about rising health care costs, coverage denials and high deductibles.

UnitedHealthcare itself has come under fire for denying claims to its customers. A Senate committee completed Earlier this year, it disclosed that three major companies — UnitedHealthcare, Humana and CVS, which owns Aetna — were intentionally denying patients care claims to boost their profits.

The company was also accused in a lawsuit of using a flawed AI algorithm to deny advanced care to older patients.

Data on how many health insurance claims are rejected is notoriously hard to come by, although the government is trying to make the process more transparent.

The Affordable Care Act, a comprehensive health care law passed by Barack Obama in 2010, was designed and mandated to, among other things, prevent false claim denials by insurance companies to monitor them. This has largely failed and there is evidence that the number of denials is increasing.

A study The study published last year by independent health policy research firm KFF found that insurance companies denied about 17 percent of patients’ claims in 2021, even if they were cared for by in-network doctors. It also found that less than one percent of consumers appealed these denials, and among those who did, insurers upheld their decision nearly 60 percent of the time. A ProPublica Investigation A study published last year also found that insurers are denying between 10 and 20 percent of the claims they receive, according to the limited government data available.

These numbers obscure the many Horror stories of people who suffer from illness or die because they were denied the care they needed from insurers. News reports of people dying after their insurance refused to pay for treatment are commonplace in the American media.

Even those who receive treatment and survive often face massive debt due to high deductibles. Appreciated today 100 million people in America are facing a form of medical debt.

Timothy Faust, a health journalist and author of the book Health equity now, told The Independent that many Americans view health insurance as a primary cause of inequity in the health care system.

“Health insurance companies ultimately determine what care you can receive and the extent to which it will ruin your family through scandalous cost-cutting processes, and are understandably the companies we most associate with the inequities in American health care,” he said.

“From conversations with people across the country, I know how many Americans are feeling the effects of this rule in their bodies. We have watched our loved ones suffer and die from preventable or treatable illnesses for which hospitals overcharge and insurers refuse to pay. I think a lot of latent anger comes from witnessing this depravity over and over again,” Faust added.

However, none of these issues were unique to UnitedHealthcare.

Thompson worked for the parent company of UnitedHealthcare for around 20 years before taking over the management of the insurance subsidiary in 2021. The company provides insurance coverage to approximately 49 million Americans and had sales of $281 billion last year.

His role as CEO gave him immense power over the lives of millions of people, but he most likely did not know his name until his death.

The killer’s exact motives are not yet known, but police received a major clue when they revealed that the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” were engraved on the live cartridges and shell casings found outside the Hilton Hotel were found on Sixth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, where Thompson was shot.

The three words bear a striking resemblance to Jay Feinman’s book Postpone, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Won’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.

“Today the game is delay, deny, defend: To improve their bottom lines, insurance companies delay paying legitimate claims, refuse to pay outright, and defend their claims by forcing plaintiffs to initiate litigation,” the blurb reads book.

— Additional reporting by Justin Rohrlich