Americans Hate Their Private Health Insurance

The response to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder surely disproves the claim that Americans love the private health insurance system. It’s a political force waiting to be harnessed — but few in DC seem interested.

By Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

Americans are not happy with the US health care system. For the first time in two decades, a majority of Americans rate US health care as substandard, including a new high calling it “poor.” Nearly three-quarters say it’s failing to meet their needs, and about half find it difficult to afford their medical bills. A majority have had some kind of problem — denied claims, for instance, or issues with provider networks or pre-authorization — with their insurance, and even bigger majorities feel insurers aren’t transparent about what they cover, or think insurance bills or the various payments they have to make to insurers are not easy to understand.

But forget the polls. If you want to get a sense of just how deep and widespread Americans’ rage at this often absurd and unfair system is, just look at the public reaction to the shocking news of the assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare (UHC), one of the country’s most cruel and rapacious health insurance companies. Whatever his killer’s motive, across the internet — on social media, YouTube, news comments sections, and more — the response has been the same: Americans are either gleefully mocking his death, saying they understand why it happened even if they don’t condone it, or sharing their own appalling personal experiences with health insurers.

The fact that this is the US public response, en masse, to the murder of a human being speaks volumes about Americans’ widespread disgust with a profit-driven health care system that leaves so many destitute or simply dead.

A Facebook post by the company expressing sadness and shock at Thompson’s killing has, as of the time of writing, nearly eighty thousand laughing emoji reactions. Twitter/X exploded with jokes about his murder.

“A good lesson here is that you should live your life in such a way that when you die, nobody pulls out a spreadsheet to mathematically explain why they’re happy you’re dead,” wrote comedian Kristin Chirico in a tweet that so far has 54,000 likes.

“Chipotle raised its prices again and someone just asked who the CEO is LMFAOOOO,” another user tweeted, garnering 315,000 likes so far.