Vigilantism Won't Fix Healthcare in America

But it will usher in a new age of violence and destruction.

Social media has been littered with celebratory posts in response to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. For anyone living with the healthcare model in the United States, it’s not difficult to understand why anyone would struggle to empathize with Thompson. Healthcare executives are so hated that some apparently think Thompson’s wife and small children should be condemned as well (see below).

However, encouraging violence as a solution to abusive industries is a dangerous game to play, especially for those who are delusional enough to think ushering in vigilante justice won’t backfire on them. Because it will. Tremendously so.

Additionally, outside of gunning down a CEO in Midtown Manhattan and triggering a nationwide manhunt for the killer, vigilantism accomplishes nothing.

To be sure, Thompson was the quintessential profits-obsessed healthcare executive. I empathize with the rage most Americans feel, especially at this moment in my life as I try to help a close family member with cancer navigate our greed-based system in search of proper and affordable care.

Those insured by UnitedHealthcare likely know my pain. Of the major health insurers, UnitedHealthcare seems to be the worst. A whopping 32 percent of in-network claims get rejected according to analysis by Value Penguin and Lending Tree.

Thompson drew the ire of his own employees too, as journalist Ken Klippenstein writes:

“In March, Thompson was sued by a firefighters pension accusing him of selling off $15 million of company stock during a Justice Department antitrust investigation…The UnitedHealth Care employee also criticized Thompson’s reported sale of $5.6 million in company stock the same day as news of a ransomeware attack plunged the stock’s value by 8 percent.”

There is no doubt that this system is cruel and untenable. Everyone (other than the executives) hates it, including doctors and healthcare workers. Right now, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is reeling over a new Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) policy that sets arbitrary time limits for anesthesia during surgery. In other words, the insurer will no longer reimburse the full cost of anesthesia services for the entire duration of some surgical procedures.

That shit is insane!

This system is immoral and completely broken. Americans need change, and I know how hopeless it all feels when the most recent presidential election didn’t even substantively touch on the issue of healthcare at all. We didn’t even get any elaboration on Donald Trump’s “concepts” of healthcare reform. His opponent Kamala Harris ran from the topic nearly as quickly as she did when confronted by pro-Palestinian protesters.

But it bears repeating: resorting to violence and celebrating murder accomplishes nothing. Applauding vigilantes will only usher in a dangerous and violent era in America when tensions are already high and divisions are ripping the country apart.

Be Careful What You Wish For

On May 31, 2009, anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder walked into the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas and shot physician George Tiller in the head at pointblank range.

Tiller, who was serving as an usher during the Sunday morning service, was wearing body armor at the time because there had already been an attempt on his life in 1993 when Shelly Shannon shot him in his arms as he was in his car. Like Roeder, Shannon was an anti-abortion extremist.

While speaking to an Associated Press reporter over the phone from jail, Roeder justified gunning Tiller down because he was one of the few doctors in the country who performed late term abortions. He confessed to the murder and noted that his motive behind the act was his interest in protecting “preborn children’s lives” who he felt “were in imminent danger. Defending innocent life — that is what prompted me. It is pretty simple."

Roeder displayed no remorse over his decision to rob another human being of his life. "Violence is not wrong in all situations…if it is done righteously — then, if it's done, it is OK," Roeder said.

That’s the thing about vigilantes and why they need to denounced and punished: anyone can find justifications for carrying out killings based on their personal ideology and morality. It’s a form of lawlessness where average citizens carry out their own interpretation of “justice” extra-judiciously. But vigilantism guarantees injustice, and will likely harm the very people celebrating Thompson’s murder on X.

It’s also worth asking leftists and progressives how they reconcile their rejection of the death penalty on one hand, yet celebrate the extra-judicial killing of a healthcare executive on the other. Is that really the culture they’re fighting for? And if the answer is that Thompson’s actions led to the deaths of innocent people, the same argument can be made for convicted murderers, too.

As one can imagine, Roeder’s crime wasn’t a success for the anti-abortion movement. Turns out assassinations don’t usually lead to a groundswell of empathy toward the murderer’s political views. It would take 14 years for the reversal of Roe v. Wade to roll back reproductive rights in many conservative states.

What the right managed to accomplish - to the detriment of women in red states - took 50 years of patience and political/judicial strategy. When the conditions were just right to make their move, Donald Trump nominated three conservative Supreme Court Justices, giving SCOTUS the right-wing majority necessary to overturn Roe. As much as I loathe the outcome, there are lessons that could be learned from the right’s strategic approach. But that takes discipline, and that seems to be in short supply at the moment.