The Memo: Social media sympathy for killing of health insurance CEO sparks pushback

The battle lines over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the ethics of the health care industry, are receiving additional scrutiny from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the most high-profile politician yet to weigh in on the matter.

Shapiro, who had been under consideration to be Vice President Harris’s running mate in this year’s election, pushed back hard against those who have sought to minimize the killing of Thompson.

Luigi Mangione, 26, has been charged with murder in the shooting death of Thompson in the early morning of Dec. 4, shortly before the executive was due to speak at an investor conference in midtown Manhattan.

Shapiro, speaking at a Monday evening news conference, said, “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this: He is no hero.”

Mangione was arrested in Shapiro’s state, having been recognized at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.

Shapiro acknowledged that there were frustrations with the health care system but condemned those who view violence as a valid response to those concerns.

He said that he had worked for better health care provisions “throughout my career” and then stated: “But I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most. In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice.”

The fact Shapiro found it necessary to make those remarks is telling in itself. There are, plainly, quite a few Americans who feel tolerance, or more, for Mangione’s perceived views.

Some on social media took glee in the murder in its immediate aftermath, with some mocking the insurance industry’s penchant for “prior authorization” to make their feelings clear.

“I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers,” was the wording of one social media post that went viral and spawned many other messages using the same language.

It remains to be seen whether the apprehension of Mangione and the formal laying of the murder charge against him will affect that sentiment — or increase it.

One post on the social platform X nominating Mangione as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — jokingly or otherwise — quickly drew more than 14,000 likes.

On the more flippant end of the spectrum, Magione’s handsome appearance has drawn its own share of fans, prompting the kind of ribald and jocular online commentary that seems incongruous with the seriousness of the crime of which he is accused.

One post juxtaposed a weeping Kyle Rittenhouse — celebrated by conservatives after his acquittal in a controversial case over his 2020 shooting of three people, two fatally, in Kenosha, Wis.  — and a shirtless Mangione, accompanied by the caption “their shooters; our shooters.” It had been viewed more than 13 million times and liked more than 292,000 times by Tuesday evening.

Mangione — who police say was carrying a handwritten manifesto that evinced “ill will toward corporate America” — is showing he wants to draw attention to his beliefs.

On Tuesday, as he was taken to an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania to see if he would be transported to face trial in New York, Mangione shouted a message to the assembled media as law enforcement officers sought to bundle him away.

Although a couple of words were indistinct, Mangione appeared to say, “This is completely unjust and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience.”

It was unclear what he meant by “this” — which could have referred to his arrest, his charging or his attempted extradition.

Tuesday also brought the purported publication of Mangione’s manifesto by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein. 

The Hill has yet to independently verify the authenticity of the manifesto posted by Klippenstein, but it appeared credible. The journalist also made clear that his document was different from a separate “forgery circulating online.”

According to the version published by Klippenstein, Mangione wrote, “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”

That figure appears to date back to a 2007 survey but the general point is accurate. Some surveys suggest the U.S.’s life expectancy ranking has fallen even further since then. In 2022, one study ranked life expectancy in the United States as 49th in the world. 

The purported manifesto went on to note the vast market capitalization of UnitedHealthcare. Its parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. was valued at $520 billion based on Tuesday’s closing stock price.

“It has grown and grown, but as ... our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed ... them to get away with it.” Mangione allegedly wrote.

It seems fairly clear that a large number of Americans, across the political spectrum, share those sentiments — even if they don’t think shooting a health care CEO to death on the street is the solution.

Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, in 2022, almost half of all Americans (47 percent) said they found it “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to afford their health care costs.

Another survey from the same organization found that more than 1 in 5 Americans who had health insurance had nonetheless put off getting health care they needed in the previous 12 months because of the cost.

A lot of people who sympathize with Mangione’s apparent outlook would abhor the deed he is alleged to have committed.

But it’s not so surprising that antagonism toward the insurers has, in some instances, seeped into a minimization of Thompson’s killing.

Shapiro’s intervention seems unlikely to change that.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.