Will the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shock the American system into change?

Summary

Rising frustrations with the U.S. healthcare system have been amplified by increasing insurance claim denials and mounting costs.

Patients report prolonged battles to access doctor-recommended care, with surveys showing one in five privately insured Americans faced denial in 2022.

Anger has intensified following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, spotlighting issues like AI-based claim reviews and profit-driven practices.

While Trump’s upcoming administration proposes deregulation and privatization, critics warn this could worsen access.

Public distrust persists, but significant reforms appear unlikely as partisan debates stall progress in Washington.

  • SeaJ
    30•6 days ago

    The answer to the tagline is: no. The CEO, Andrew Witty, of UHC Group (owner of UHC) wrote an article saying the healthcare system is broken and needs to be fixed. It was all PR garbage. No identification of WHAT people are frustrated with or how they will work to fix it. He also said that no employee should have to live in fear but the examples he gave of employees were RNs and call center employees. Last I checked, people were not angry enough at those groups to kill them in the street.

    • @[email protected]
      19•5 days ago

      If you go on the subreddit for nurses there’s actually a pinned post reminding people that they’ll be banned for advocating for murder because the very day that headline first broke their were multiple posts and numerous comments to the effect of “good” and “who do we hope they get next?” A significant portion of the compassion fatigue (read: PTSD for people with empathy) affecting nurses these days is watching our patients suffer and die due to various health problems that they cannot afford to treat. ER nurses in particular are constantly bogged down with treating chronic conditions that have only become emergencies by being grossly undertreated. They got into this to save people from heart attacks and instead they’re getting wave after wave of demented nursing home residents with pressure ulcers full of maggots.

      The fact that Healthcare executives are trying to lump themselves in with nurses is even more disgusting when you realize that most of the reason we get our asses beat is because we’re usually physically standing the closest when the health insurance system fucks people over the hardest. They don’t know what to do, they don’t know who to turn to, and their life is at stake so they start swinging at whoever is closest and 9/10 times that’s a nurse (or nursing assistant). Healthcare executives are hands down the #1 root cause of the physical abuse of nurses; they ARE the ones getting us hit, and they don’t get to claim they’re one of us now that somebody finally came after the real culprit.