Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the US ranks last among the 10 highest-income countries in health care. Due to the high wages of doctors and the cost of expensive, but essential medical technology, the price of healthcare is high. With 75% percent of hospitals being privately owned and not funded by taxpayer dollars, it is impossible for the average American family to pay for healthcare out-of-pocket. Thankfully, we have health insurance to aid Americans in covering costs, but due to the lack of laws requiring firms to provide insurance and the number of low-income families being denied health coverage, about 26 million Americans are uninsured and unable to afford the crucial health care they need.
Even more, Americans are battling to get certain forms of health care due to insurance companies’ refusal to pay for anything that is not deemed ‘necessary’ (which in some cases includes hearing aids and wheelchairs)—about 1 in 7 cases to be denied, which causes an estimated 35,327 to 44,789 deaths annually. Despite the running joke about the USA’s poor healthcare system and the occasional push for Obamacare in the political sphere (something that will most likely be eradicated under Trump), the issue was very rarely talked about both on social media apps and within Congress which was shocking given that it involved the deaths of the Americans our politicians are sworn in to protect.
Then, healthcare was all over the headlines. This issue was brought to the forefront of every American’s mind not because of its harm to civilians but because of the death of a particular higher-ranking American.
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
However, when news of his assassination hit the papers, there was not the expected reaction of disgust towards the killer on social media. Instead, there seemed to be more rage directed towards the victim.
Why? Murder is the worst thing you could do to a person what could justify it?
UnitedHealthcare is infamously known for denying patients coverage more than the typical insurance firm. Deeming clients’ expenses ‘unnecessary’ despite warnings from doctors causing lawsuits to pile up. The most famous case involving them providing Penn State students with health insurance, and yet when one chronically ill student with ulcerative colitis was flagged for being a costly patient, suddenly his medication was deemed ‘unnecessary’ which was the difference between life and death for him. There was a point when there was a senate investigation against them, which revealed that UnitedHealthcare denied nursing care requests at a rate three times higher than other services. It is no secret that they are prioritizing profit over their patients.
The words on the bullet casings, ‘deny’, ‘defend’, and ‘dispose’, something out of an action movie, ignited a social movement on social media with rage directed towards the healthcare systems and towards the oligarchs that run the US’s political and corporate scenes. National opinion columnist on the Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch, wrote that this assignation was “in a weird way, a kind of a reality check,” waking people up who weren’t already aware of the injustices in the healthcare system to bring overall more awareness to the issue.
However, the overwhelming support for his actions is presented through social media, especially the rise in it after his identity was revealed, as Luigi Mangeoni brings up the question of whether he actually is a hero. Is murder justifiable in this specific instance? Or does he just have a pretty face?
I happened to stumble across the side of TikTok that supported Luigi when his identity was revealed, and I was exposed to several FreeLuigi posts. I saw people come out with stories of how they were denied coverage and what seemed like the start of a rage-filled social movement that could lead to real change if we pushed hard enough, similar to the BLM movement. However, it seemed that, with time, the message was starting to get twisted. Instead of continuing to talk about the issue, conversations turned more towards Luigi’s looks. Thirst edits being made of him overtaking people’s stories, people commenting lewd comments on videos discussing the problem, rather than the defense of his actions being on the basis of morality and whether murder is justifiable if the victim is ‘bad, the media and the public becamemore focused on the fact he had a pretty smile.
In fact, to those who are older, specifically those in seats of power, it seems that the narrative we are trying to push is “just because you’re attractive makes your actions justifiable,” an idea that is also being pushed in media such as movies and books with fandom justifying the villain’s actions because of their appearance. The group of fans fawning over his abs on social media is impactingthe real issue he was trying to fight for and the people in that fight to lose credibility and prevent politicians from taking us seriously when this topic is brought up in the House as well as pushing this dangerous narrative of ‘pretty privilege’ that may give people ideas that they can get away with things based on their looks. People are starting to get more worried about who is going to play him if he gets a documentary than the actual fact thousands are dying due to lack of healthcare. This idea is backed up further by the internet’s recent obsession with the Menedez brothers and Jeffery Damar (recent Netflix shows who casted attractive actors, leading people to consistently repeat the phrase “hear me out”)
Even for those who were not backing Luigi up because of his looks, they are still glorifying murder. Yes, he had a morally good message he was trying to spread, but at the end of the day, a man still died for essentially nothing. Besides bringing attention to the issue, little government action has taken place since the incident, and UnitedHealthcare has continued with just a new man at the helm. Murder is not the most effective way to create change, and we should not encourage it to be brought to the table as a new political tool for people to swing around regularly when there is an issue they want to fix. By doing this, it overshadows the real solutions that do take more time but, at the end of the day, cause real change. As the famous expression goes: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Yes, UnitedHealthcare is a sleazy insurance company that cares more about profits than its customers. Yes, Brian Thompson was taking in 10 million annually while people were dying from lack of access to healthcare. But the big money making CEO’s are not the problem, just a result of it. The problem is the capitalist profit-centered system as a whole and how it is structured within the healthcare industry and in any multinational corporation. Luigi made the typical mistake in history by being rash and blinded with anger. He took the easy route of attacking the tip of the pyramid, not the base, which holds the corrupt system up, which causes commotion but doesn’t fix the problem. This is what the controllers of this system want: to keep eyes off of them by creating false heroes and villains.
Luigi isn’t a hero, and Brian Tompson isn’t a villain. They are both just victims of the system.
