An Aristocrat in the Crosshairs
A Hero is Born?
It’s December 4, 2024. The cold New York morning air[1] bites at the skin on your uncovered hands. Gloves would only hinder the task at hand. You have been busy; you have planned and prepared thoroughly for tonight.
A smart-dressed man in a royal blue blazer leaves his hotel to attend an investors conference. With negotiations and money on his mind, he doesn’t notice you. Why would he? In a post-pandemic world, face masks are commonplace, even if it wasn’t December. You spot him, though. His attire is fitting considering healthcare executives are the American equivalent to aristocracy. Controlling, profiting, and toying with the lives of those less fortunate. You have waited, and now it’s time to perform.
Delay.
Your weapon jams, but your chilled hands are quick to clear it.
Deny.
Depose.
Your task is completed, and you flee on foot. It doesn’t take long for the news to flood with the word of your accomplishment. The police response is extensive, but it’s the public response that surprises you. The public is praising you as a hero. Maybe, just maybe, you are. [2]
The Morality of Martyrs and Monsters
It sounds like a work of fiction, but I imagine you remember it well from an outside perspective. When the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, was murdered, the public overwhelmingly celebrated his death. By December 6th, 57,000 of the 62,000 reactions to his company’s Facebook post mourning his passing were laughing emoticons.[3] The suspect was, and largely still is, praised for his poetic justice, suave looks, skill, and athleticism. However, this brings up the question: When is it okay to celebrate a murder?
History shows evidence that there are times that murder is considered a justifiable act. War, for example, often involves sanctioned killing. Soldiers are even celebrated by their countrymen for their service. Even outside of a battlefield, some argue that assassination can be morally permissible. For example, consider a common thought experiment: if a person was given the opportunity to go back in time to kill Hitler before his rise in power, most people would agree that doing so is a just cause. Under the assumption there are no unforeseen temporal ramifications, and the deeds were reportable, the assassin in this instance would be widely revered. Millions were lost during the Holocaust. The murder of one person to save millions seems not only reasonable but can also seem morally necessary if the target is responsible for widespread tragedy. Genocide, oppression, and revolution blur the line between vengeance and justice, and murder begins to wear a righteous mask regardless of if it is or is not the moral choice in the moment. Yet, denying the shattered masses their moment of cathartic celebration would only serve to further victimize them. Therefore, it could be accepted that murder could be justly celebrated under certain extreme circumstances.
In contrast, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at the hands of John Wilkes Booth devastated the Union States, only celebrated by those he directly opposed. Lincoln’s dedication to human rights and the liberation of enslaved Americans established his leadership as both honorable and morally grounded, in spite of being politically divisive among his contemporaries. For those aligned with his ideals, his death evoked despair and uncertainty for the hard-earned freedoms of American people. He became a martyr for equality, his legacy being continually protected by those he fought for. In modern times, publicly celebrating his death would be reprehensible, even if true equality is still being strived for. This difference highlights a morbid but undeniable truth: the celebration or condemnation of a murder often hinges less on the act itself, and more on the victim or their death’s historic impact.
The Human Cost of Healthcare
However, Brian Thompson was not Lincoln, nor was he Hitler, and the suspect is not a hypothetical time traveler. Thompson was a 50-year-old man living in Maple Grove, MN, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis.[4] His annual base salary of one million is impressive, but his reported net yearly income in 2023 of 10.2 million[5][6] was nearly 80-fold that of his neighbors.[7] With around 16% of the market share, UHC’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, is the leader in American health insurance.[8]
In 2023, UnitedHealth Group’s in-network denial rate was recorded to be at about 33% by a KFF analysis of Affordable Care Act transparency data.[9] This number is staggering, and the unexpected price of health hurts patient outcomes. Money controls our world and influences our decisions. The warranted fear of expense convinces us to brush serious symptoms under the rug.
Using myself as an example, when I was an 18-year-old with no health insurance, I caught a life-threatening fever. I had just enough medical knowledge to know I was a few decimals away from risking serious health complications. I knew I was falling deeper into the fever-induced delirium creeping into my consciousness. Yet, I didn’t call for help. My last coherent thoughts were that I couldn’t afford the unknown hospital bill, let alone the transportation. Soon, the fever progressed too far for me to track it in my condition, and even if I wanted to, I could no longer access care. I knew what I was risking, and I still feared living in medical debt over endangering my own life. This is the damage that the uncertain cost of care does. Luckily, my fever broke with minimal fallout, but how many countless people in a similar situation aren’t as fortunate? How many would blame those denying claims and influencing the cost for their loved one’s death?
Echoes of Revolution: Power, Protest, and Bloodshed
People are growing tired of the rich and powerful controlling their access to necessities, and parallels are forming in history. Brian Thompson wasn’t a well-known controversial figure like the examples before, but, like the pre-revolution French aristocracy, he still had the wealth and power to influence the fate of so many. His actual identity was irrelevant; he was an embodiment of greed, inequity, and unchecked power. His assassination, and the widespread celebration that followed, echoes the public executions of nobles during the French Revolution. Blue bloodshed was cheered for then, as it is now.
My intention isn’t to claim Thompson was on par with the worst offenders that provoked the revolution, but to highlight tension growing over the class division that fuels this kind of public reaction. The system is what needs to be remedied, not any individual. American healthcare disproportionately burdens those in most need.[10] This was true of the French Revolution as well. Many were executed for simply being (unfortunately) born fortunate during turbulent times, and some for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Innocents were executed; liberation became the Reign of Terror. Those who led executions were later executed themselves for the same cause. Similarly, Thompson’s death may stem from a rightful outcry against inequality, but it is also a modern demonstration of how the lines between justice and vengeance can blur.
While the French Revolution remains a pivotal point in history, defining the modern ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité, the foundation’s morality is muddied in unnecessary bloodshed. Do the ends justify the means? Can violence be celebrated if it is saturated in revolutionary symbolism? Would that spiral into danger, where the cause becomes indistinguishable from the cruelty it opposes? These are the challenging questions we need to be asking ourselves right now. In the same breath that we honor the Revolution’s legacy, we must also confront its contradictions. Moral absolutism falters when faced with the complexities of acts that bring about necessary change. History and humanity rarely fit neatly into moral categories. Therefore, as today’s history is written, we need to consciously consider what story we want to write, to prevent repeating our darkest chapters in the pursuit of change.
RESOURCES
[1] Weather Report: https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/ny/new-york-city/KLGA/date/2024-12-4
[3] Public Reaction: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/business/insurance-claim-denials-unitedhealthcare-ceo/index.html
[4] Thompson Bio: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/nyregion/brian-thompson-dead.html
[5] Salary.com graphics: https://www1.salary.com/Brian-Thompson-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-unitedhealth-group-inc.html
[6] US SEC Data: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0000731766/000073176624000323/unh-20240930.htm
[7] Data USA Info: https://datausa.io/profile/geo/maple-grove-mn?compare=minneapolis-mn
[8] Market Share Data: https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/publication-msr-hb-accident-health.pdf
[9] KFF Data: https://www.kff.org/private-insurance/issue-brief/claims-denials-and-appeals-in-aca-marketplace-plans-in-2023/
[10] Social Determinants and Claim Denials: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2823677 doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.33316