It is an assassination that Americans have difficulty denouncing. On Wednesday, December 4, Brian Thompson, boss of United Healthcare, the country’s leading health insurer, was shot dead in the center of Manhattan. An act that could have been premeditated by Luigi Mangione26 years old, main suspect arrested after a few days on the run.
The motive? Several indications suggest that he wanted to denounce the entirely privatized health care system in the United States. To benefit from medical coverage, Americans must purchase private insurancethere is no nationalized Social Security as is the case in France or other European countries. These private insurances can be very expensive if you want to be properly covered.
In 2022, those residing in the United States spent 1.290 billion dollars in private health insuranceand this, despite the “Obama Care” law adopted more than 10 years ago now. United Healthcare is the leading insurer in the United States, covering approximately 50 million people and last year achieving $16.4 billion in profits.
“Delay, Deny, Defend”
According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a health policy specialist, the majority of insured adults in the United States have encountered at least one problem with their insurance company over a period of one year, particularly claim rejections, excessive billings or difficulty understanding coverage terms.
On the bullet casings left at the crime scene by the killer were the words: “delay, deny, defend”which mean “to delay, deny, defend”. This phrase is frequently used to summarize insurers’ strategy to avoid paying claims.
In 2010, law professor Jay Feinman published a book titled: Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Won’t Pay Your Claims Than You Can Do. Since the assassination of Brian Thompson, his work has experienced an unexpected revival of interest, it is currently number two best-selling books nonfiction on Amazon.
Since then, Jeff Bezos’ company declared to CNN that it was withdrawing from sale all objects containing the words “Delay, Deny, Defend”, but the author of the work did not hesitate to remind on X that his work was also available from his website.
On social networks, this assassination was the subject of many ironic comments and many praised the cause of Luigi Mangione, sometimes to the point of making him a hero.
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