At this point, most if not all readers have heard that UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed by Luigi Mangione. Given that Gray Panthers has a history of advocacy for better health care in the United States, we feel that it’s important to comment on this.
This is a case where multiple realities can, and should, exist. Namely, we believe that the following realities exist:
We believe that the current American healthcare system, as it stands, is, in the words of former journalist Walter Cronkite, “neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
We believe that Americans are right to be frustrated, even angry, with our broken health care system. Gray Panthers is angry with our country’s broken health care system, too.
Yet, at the same time, we do not believe that the killing of others—not even the killing of healthcare CEOs whose companies have killed countless people through their cruel insurance decisions—is the way to respond. Gray Panthers has a history of opposing the death penalty, and the murder of someone—even someone whose company’s actions should be condemned and held accountable—carries the same end consequences as the death penalty.
We believe that, even before the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, serious discussions on how to have a more healthy, caring health care system in the United States were desperately needed, yet are not happening enough. And, to that end, it is unfortunate that it has taken the murder of a major health care insurance CEO to have that conversation.
We believe that the fact that it took the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO to even have this conversation at a more serious level is also troubling, just as the murder itself is troubling.
Instead of murdering health care insurance CEOs, we believe that the true pathway to a solution involves putting pressure on our politicians to fundamentally change our healthcare system. The most effective pressure point for a politician is pressure from their own constituents.
All of these realities can, and should, exist. You can be angry with American health care, and yet not believe that the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO was justified. You can believe that our healthcare system needs to fundamentally be changed and yet believe that putting pressure on our politicians is more likely to produce results than killing a health care insurance CEO. These realities need not, and should not, be mutually exclusive.
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