It’s no secret that the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—allegedly by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione—unleashed a tide of rage against the deeply problematic US health care system. But according to a new poll, frustration with the industry is so serious that many Americans believe that Mangione wasn’t solely responsible for Thompson’s death, and that the insurance industry played a significant role.
To be clear, we’re not talking here about social media conspiracies about the shooting, such as those linking Luigi Mangione’s Pokemon of choice (Breloom, of course) with insurance claim denial codes. Pollsters at the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago interviewed 1,001 adults between December 12-16, asking them first about their familiarity with the case. Of those, 39 percent said they had heard “a lot,” while an improbable 9 percent said they’d heard nothing at all.
Of those, about 8 in 10 said that they believed that Mangione had either “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” culpability in Thompson’s death, but 7 in 10 also believe that insurance company coverage denials, such as UnitedHealthcare’s AI-generated rejections—bear “a moderate amount” of responsibility for the homicide. Insurance company profits, such as UnitedHealth’s $371.6 billion in 2023, were also cited by respondents as responsible for the fatal shooting.
As expected, Mangione was extradited from a Pennsylvania jail on December 19, and was transported to New York to face charges of including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism. He appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to all charges. A crowd of protesters stood outside during the proceedings, many with signs bearing slogans critical of UnitedHealth and other large insurance companies, a scene that certainly underscores the sentiments of the poll-takers.
