The problem is not that the Rule of Law will target Thompson ‘s killer (it has to otherwise society further breaks down into the undesirable form of anarchy), but that it did not pursue Thompson or United Healthcare for putting profit above human life. Allowing these firms to rape and pillage set the scene for the killing of Brian Thompson. And, without justifying vigilante action, it can be confidently said that Thompson blithely participated in the causes of his own death.
But how do you get the system to actually take action on these companies? Politicians like Bernie Sanders have been calling for single payer universal healthcare for years now, which would cut out the middle man and give every American affordable comprehensive cover healthcare. But then you have Trump whipping up MAGA obsession with the idea that affordable public healthcare is the enemy. Calls for universal healthcare can’t gain ground because Republicans continue to portray public health as some kind of demon that robs from the pockets of struggling Americans to pay for what, Health care for other struggling Americans? They have Americans fighting Americans.
Further compounding the situation is sheer refusal of the Democrat leadership to take a stand against the excesses of capitalism; Tim Walz posted in response to the killing with “This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota”. How must people who have had their life or limb stolen from them by United Healthcare despite having paid premiums their whole lives feel about Walz’s statement? How do Democrats expect to ever make ground against Republicans/Trump, when they continually show themselves to be part of the same privileged class? Drawing around their own rather than standing for the people.
Some Democrats and Republicans are standing up. Congressman Ro Khanna has, whilst decrying the violence, not been afraid to use the killing of Thompson as an opportunity to address the issue of access to healthcare: “We waste hundreds of billions a year on health care administrative expenses that make insurance CEOs and wealthy stockholders incredibly rich while 85 million Americans go uninsured or underinsured. Health care is a human right. We need Medicare for All.”
Josh Penner, Republican Mayor of Orting had this to say on X, after sharing a letter in which United Healthcare denied his son a doctor-recommended powered wheelchair; “If the response to a cold-blooded, pre-meditated execution is … “yeah I can see how they would do that.” Your corporate culture may.. need to be looked at!” and in a further post “To be clear, there’s still a special place in Hell for hired goon doctors that get brought in just to deny the prescriptions of the doctor’s and medical professionals that directly treat patients – And the executives who employ that strategy for quarterly gains.”
No doubt Penner and Khanna have different ideas about how to address the situation, but there is a shared recognition that something is not right and it’s not the killing of
Thompson that is the major thing wrong in all this.
Some sources for this opinion piece:
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-12-06/killing-of-unitedhealthcare-ceo-triggers-wave-of-health-insurance-outrage
https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-killed-outside-investor-conference-in-new-york-city/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-ro-khanna-us-moving-medicare-cure-inequities/story?id=116564621
