This Can't Be the Way to Fight It

The news story of the month is the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

The buzz on social media is trying to paint the picture of why. The bullet casings were inscribed with the words deny, delay, depose. That is the strategy insurance companies employ to avoid covering health costs. Many Americans are fed up with the state of healthcare in the US, and Luigi Mangione decided he wasn't going to take it anymore. The CEO of the largest insurance provider in the country was going to pay the price for everyone who was denied healthcare and died, or went bankrupt due to denial of coverage. 

While I never had any major health crises with medical bills that caused a financial meltdown, my finances have been unpleasantly altered by illness and injuries throughout my medical history. I understand the frustration. The bills for my broken collarbone this year caused me to deplete my savings, and I am still paying off the hospital bill for my surgery. I only started saving again two months ago. (If I hadn't been injured I might have booked that bucket list trip to Scotland by now.) My hatred of insurance companies is no less than anyone else's. 

I have seen my social media feeds explode - not with condolences to the family of the victim, but with long lists of the crimes health insurance providers committed against their beneficiaries. Health insurance companies are the enemy.

One might even say this is a shot fired across the bow. Social media now warn all insurance CEOs, "You're next."

I have mixed feelings about all of this.

I don't condone murder. I consider myself a pacifist. I hate violence. I can't stand seeing people do physical harm to each other. I cringe merely seeing violence in movies. (Hey look! I used cringe properly as a verb!) Killing other human beings rarely solves problems. That is true for murder, war, and the death penalty. The world would be better off if we worked on solutions to prevent humans from shedding blood in the first place. This means creating a  more just and peaceful world - and that sadly is more difficult than simply pulling a trigger.

I would be lying if I said I didn't understand the motivation and feel the frustration. The healthcare system in this country is awful. Insurance companies are the worst. We live in a country where rich corporations place bets on whether or not their customers live or die and they play to win. An entire industry exists not to provide a service, but to do everything possible to avoid providing that service. The result is Americans die or go bankrupt because they can't afford their medical care. Murdering a CEO sends a clear signal about how frustrated we have all become.

How do we frame this murder? Do we see it as the tragic loss of someone's husband and father? How would any of us feel if one of our family members was murdered? Do we see it as revenge? This was a man who was indirectly responsible for thousands of deaths and even more financial ruin. Removing him from the planet could be seen as the right thing to do, so he couldn't do more damage.

But does murdering one CEO do anything? One could make the argument that removing an evil person from the world will reduce the harm that person can do. After all, what if someone killed Hitler before he came into power? But Brian Thompson was no Hitler. Hitler was a one-in-a-million evil. While evil dictators from him have always existed and always will exist (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.) people and situations like him are rare. Brian Thompson was a run-of-the-mill CEO.  He will be replaced with another CEO. These CEOs will form PACs and lobby Congress and do whatever they can to make sure the laws work in their favor. Nothing is going to change. We have an incoming government determined to make our healthcare system worse, not better. We can't assassinate the entirety of Congress.

(Well, I suppose if we can find some aliens...)

One might hope the death of someone on their side would motivate the federal government to standardize gun laws, but I doubt that will happen. The gun lobby is as strong as the insurance lobby. There will probably be a bigger push for CEOs to carry guns themselves or have more security.

In fact, the only result I see coming out of this is there will be more draconian policing of US citizens. Even though the suspected shooter was a US citizen with relatives holding political office, they will find a way to turn this on immigrants and even though the suspect was white, I have no doubt people of color will bear the brunt of it.

I suppose if any good came of this incident is that it brought to light how frustrated Americans are with the system and how far some of us are willing to go to let it be known. People across the political spectrum are cheering on the shooter. (When even Ben Schapiro's audience is rallying behind the shooter, you know you lost the plot.) This country is supposedly divided (you know how I feel about that) but we sure know how to unite over our hatred of the healthcare system.

What is the answer? What is the solution? We can't vote with our feet and stop giving insurance companies our business. It may be hard to live with our health insurance, but it's even harder to live without it. We can try to vote better politicians into office, but this country has a bad habit of voting against its own best interests. In November we had a chance to put some people in office who might be a little less inclined to favor corporate interests (sadly, only a little) but we didn't do that, did we? Instead we voted in a government determined to take away the few protections we have. Insurance companies will continue to pump out as much PR propaganda as they can to convince Americans that any legislative improvements to the healthcare system are communism. They repeat the lies and play to the fears about rationing and death panels.

We're stuck. All this murder did was create more paranoia among CEOs, which will curtail our freedoms in the form of more policing. I don't see anything getting better in the near future.

What can we do?

Go for a walk. Go to the gym. Take a class. Join a sports league. 

Stop smoking/vaping.

Eat your fruits and vegetables and drastically cut your intake of ultra-processed food.

Meditate.

Drink water. Cut your consumption of alcohol and soft drinks.

Get plenty of sleep.

Drive carefully. Wear your seatbelt. Wear your helmet when you ride your motorcycle, horse, or bicycle.

Avoid doing activities with high risk of injury.

Manage stress.

Wear sunscreen.

Wash your hands often during cold and flu season.

In other words, do whatever you can to stay healthy and avoid injury. It's not going to guarantee health, but you might as well cut your risks. The only way to avoid the high cost of healthcare is to not need healthcare.