The shocking murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street corner last week suggests an unsettling truth about American healthcare: Our system hasn't just failed — it has lost its moral legitimacy entirely.
The chilling messages inscribed on the shell casings, "deny," "defend" and "depose", read like an indictment of our entire healthcare apparatus.
What's even more disturbing is the public response. Across social media, many are not expressing horror at this act of violence but instead sharing stories of insurance denials and celebrating corporate comeuppance.
"Sending prior authorization, denied claims, collections & prayers to his family," wrote one commenter. "Thoughts and prayers are out of network," quipped another.
When citizens respond to murder with dark humor rather than revulsion, we must ask: How did we reach this point?
The answer lies in the industrialization of human suffering. UnitedHealthcare, with its $281 billion in revenue and responsibility for covering the lives of 49 million Americans, recently deployed an AI system to deny elderly patients' claims with a staggering 90 percent error rate.
The company continued using this system despite knowing it was wrong nine........