In the wake of the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the New York Police Department is warning other health insurance executives that their safety could also be at risk.
According to a Dec. 10 police bulletin obtained by ABC News, viral social media posts have listed the names and salaries of prominent health insurance executives online, and "Wanted" posters featuring those executives have been appearing throughout Manhattan. The NYPD is encouraging insurers to boost security efforts because the murder has the "capability to inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence."
The words "deny," "defend," and "depose" were written on shell casings found at the scene of where Mr. Thompson was murdered on Dec. 4, allegedly by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9 and charged with second-degree murder in New York. Police obtained a manifesto regarding his motivation and mindset, where he expressed contempt toward corporate America and the healthcare industry.
On Dec. 10, a Florida woman was arrested and charged after telling a Blue Cross Blue Shield employee over the phone, "Delay, deny, depose. You people are next," in response to a denied claim, ABC reported.
The killing of the CEO of the nation's largest insurer has sparked a firestorm of online hostility toward the health insurance industry more broadly. Individuals took to social media to share their experiences with delayed and denied care. One federal lawmaker described the situation as unjustified but not surprising, and some insurance CEOs have publicly expressed similar sentiments.
On Dec. 11, Sen. Elizabeth Warren told MSNBC that "violence is never the answer … but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands." She later clarified to Politico that "Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder."
AHIP, the trade association representing health insurers, wrote on LinkedIn on Dec. 12: "Those in positions of leadership must condemn violence without qualification or equivocation. Anything short of that is not only irresponsible – it's dangerous."
Since the fatal shooting, insurers have quickly tightened security around their executives, canceling conferences or moving them to virtual formats, temporarily closing offices, and removing biographical information online.
"We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it," UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty wrote in a Dec. 13 op-ed in The New York Times. "Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that. Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made."
"No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones' safety," he said.
Mr. Thompson, 50, was named CEO of UnitedHealthcare in April 2021. He first joined Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group in 2004 and held numerous leadership positions across the company. Before UnitedHealth, he held management roles at PwC in Minnesota. He graduated with a bachelor's of business administration and accounting from the University of Iowa in 1997.