America and the internet are currently obsessing over Luigi Mangione, charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. With mythologised versions of his character floating around, the 26-year-old has somehow become anyone and everything the world wants him to be. However, it still remains an undeniable fact that the once high school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate with a debilitating back condition was charged with murder in New York. Moreover, he faces four other charges, including one count of forging a document and criminally possessing a firearm. Yet, the US continues to celebrate the reported anti-capitalist by boosting his image as the internet’s main character, going as far as arranging a shooter look-alike contest in Washington Square Park last Friday.
Following his arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Mangione is being held in Pennsylvania. On December 10, the NYC killing suspect was brought to an extradition hearing at Blair County Court House in Hollidaysburg. Officers had to force him into the building as he struggled in shackles while attempting to make his case to the reporters. “It’s completely out of touch and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” he shouted before finally being led inside. At the hearing, he maintained that he would challenge the extradition to New York. However, it still remains unclear what exactly he was referring to in his initial heated rant.
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According to an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania standout from a prominent Baltimore family seemed to be motivated by anger against the health insurance industry. Based on Mangione’s “manifesto” and digital footprint, the NYPD assessment said, “He appeared to view the targeted killing of the company’s highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and ‘power games,’ asserting in his note he is the ‘first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
Online reaction to Luigi Mangione being named as prime suspect in Brian Thompson murder
In light of what is known (or the lack thereof) about Mangione, the intense online reaction has been collective, valorising the suspect to the standards of a new-age hero in a capitalist world. The pro-Mangione narrative is more about American’s infuriated stance against the complications of health care coverage.
Reddit specifically erupted with strong support for the 26-year-old man. An online discussion titled “Luigi Mangione represents more Americans than Donald Trump” went viral on the online forum. Referring to numerous reports about the “burden of medical debt” in the US, users argued in favour of Mangione and how he could possibly be elected as the country’s president sometime in the future. “Felonies don’t matter anymore and then we can get our healthcare,” someone wrote in Luigi’s support. While also delving into the Democratic vs Republican divide on healthcare, users mulled over how the suspected shooter in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing could “be eligible in 2036.”
“Luigi Mangione gets it. More Americans support universal healthcare than not, so why are we still fighting for something that should be a basic right? Time for real change,” a user fanned the fire.
Why is the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s suspected killer being hailed as a hero
In April 2023, the Associated Press added to the argument by citing estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation: “These are three of an estimated 100 million Americans who have amassed nearly $200 billion in collective medical debt — almost the size of Greece’s economy.”
To get a better and fairly more contemporary picture of the situation in the wake of Thompson’s murder, ‘Today, Explained’ struck up an interaction with journalist Bob Herman. He avidly covers healthcare from a business perspective at Stat News and reported several investigations about UnitedHealthcare.
Also read | UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder grips US: 5 unanswered questions after shooter’s arrest
Directly addressing people’s “pretty morbid… grim” reactions, Herman said, “The dancing on the death of somebody was pretty vile. But anyone who covers health care knows that people are fed up with the system. This is not new.”
He added, “This has been going on for decades. Even when the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, came into play 15 years ago, people still hated the system and it’s persisted since then. So people’s frustrations have been bubbling under the surface for so long. To say you were surprised by all the reactions, then I think maybe you had your head buried in the sand a little bit.”
Trump still struggling to come up with an effective healthcare plan
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump promised in September that he had ‘concepts of a plan’ to deal with healthcare. Post his successful re-election campaign, he still insists on having the same. In his recent interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, he said that he had ‘concepts of a plan that would be better’ than Obamacare. Instead of dissecting how his “concepts” would towards the betterment of industry, he spent much of the time attacking others. “We have the biggest healthcare companies looking at it,” he said on Sunday. ‘We have doctors who are always looking. Because Obamacare stinks. It’s lousy. There are better answers.”
He continued, “If we come up with a better answer, I would present that answer to Democrats and to everybody else and I’d do something about it. But until we have that or until they can approve it—but we’re not going to go through the big deal. I am the one that saved Obamacare, I will say.”
Luigi Mangione’s purported motive
On the other hand, while Mangione’s motive has yet to be confirmed, NYPD Jessica Tisch said during a media briefing, “Officers recovered a hand-written document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” She also noted in a December 10 Today interview, “ think when we look at the manifesto, or that three-page written document that was recovered, you see anti-corporatist sentiment, a lot of issues with the healthcare industry. But as to particular specific motive, that will come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and months.”
Also read | Inside Luigi Mangione’s weathy family that contributed millions to healthcare, industry that allegedly fuelled his rage
Mangione’s lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told reporters on Monday that his client will plead not guilty to the charges in relation to Brian Thompson’s killing in NY.
The rather lack of sympathy from people for Thompson’s death to UnitedHealthcare’s egregious attempts at getting customers to pay massive premiums. The Guardian reported, “Denying claims is apparently very profitable. UnitedHealth has a market value of $566bn, and generated nearly $372bn in revenues last year.” It also cited data from ValuePenguin, a consumer research site owned by Lending Tree specialising in insurance, “the company dismissed about one in every three claims in 2023. That’s the most of any major insurer: the industry average is 16%.” Thompson, in turn, became the face of an unfair system, especially since he was one of three UnitedHealth group execs in a class-action lawsuit, accusing him of dumping over $120m of stock while the company was facing a federal antitrust investigation.
