Summary
Progressive lawmakers view the online praise for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a sign of deep public frustration with the U.S. healthcare system.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called it a “wake-up call” highlighting resentment over financial and health precarity, while Sen. Bernie Sanders emphasized that anger reflects the belief that healthcare is a human right.
Though all lawmakers condemned the murder, some progressives argue it underscores systemic issues like claim denials.
Calls for healthcare reform have intensified amid public outrage.
You say that like that wasn’t their top priority the day before the shooting.
I don’t mean to antagonize, but I dislike even passive implications that they’ve shown us any quarter or will stop being nice now.
They were always for maximum murder for maximum profit. At no point does anyone in charge go “well if they’ve paid their premiums for decades and never used their plan at all, let them have the surgery” if they have any technicality to prevent it.
No amount of Good boy/girl reverence towards them has or will result in anything positive for their customers/marks.
That’s bad for business. They never used kid gloves, so they have nothing to take off. There was 0 good faith being exercised between private health insurers and their customers on December 3rd.
If anything, what happened helped a few BlueCross patients not be billed tens of thousands for anasthesia for their approved surgeries after the fact, at least for a few months until they institute it anyway if this moment passes without becoming a movement. Unlike goodwill, they do seem to respond to fear.