America United | America Divided

It’s hard to know where this story begins, so perhaps it’s better to just start at the end. For United Healthcare CEO and father of two, Brian Thompson, his story ends on a Manhattan sidewalk on a cold December day. He’s on his way to speak at an investor’s conference, although he’ll never arrive. From behind, a man will approach him, pull out a ghost gun, shoot him several times with it, and then Thompson will die on that sidewalk outside of a Hilton hotel.

The assassin’s upper part of his face is caught on nearby security cameras. Then there’s another photo caught on another security camera from earlier that day. He’s slipped up on his disguise here, and much more of his face is now visible. He’s caught flirting with a woman. In this photo, it appears he’s a handsome young man, and he’s grinning here. A manhunt then commences to find Thompson’s assailant. Soon, he is captured in Pennsylvania. His name turns out to be Luigi Mangione.

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Who is Luigi Mangione? As I read several articles about Luigi Mangione and his life, I come to realize we have quite a bit in common. I come to find out that he’s a fourth generation Italian American, a technologist, and someone with a history of back problems. I learn more about his family as well.

The Daily Beast writes an article about his grandfather Nicholas Mangione and his struggle with racism in America as an Italian American. Eventually, his grandfather is able to overcome these issues and build a better life for his children. His grandson, Luigi Mangione, is born into a life of privilege as a result of his grandfather’s hard work. It’s a quintessential story about The American Dream. Luigi’s grandfather did have one Achilles’ heel though—his anger issues, which the article argues his grandson inherited, and it is this which leads to Luigi’s eventual downfall.

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As shocking as the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been, there have been so many other things about this story that have been far more shocking. The first thing that I have found particularly concerning are those who have sought to profit off Thompson’s death through the sale of Luigi Mangione merchandise. It’s shocking for its blatant disregard of the feelings of Thompson’s family, as well as for the inability to grasp basic ethics, in that these people are making money off of a murderer. Have they no shame?

In one particularly egregious example of this profiteering, one merchant is selling a shirtless Luigi Mangione T-shirt. There are also various other “free Luigi” items for sale, including a tote bag. Ecommerce giants such as Amazon & Ebay have taken action against many of these items by removing them from their sites, although there has been such a proliferation of these items that it has turned into a game of whack-a-mole.

The hero-worship response to Mangione has been troubling and misguided, as gunning down Brian Thompson doesn’t solve America’s systemic healthcare issues. It’s also hypocritical to kill someone if you’re trying to make a point about how much suffering United Healthcare is causing, while you’re increasing the suffering for Thompson’s family and friends by killing Brian Thompson.

With regards to Mangione’s high level criticisms that we, as Americans, overpay for healthcare to receive poor results, he is correct. In a 2024 Common Wealth Fund report, The United States ranked dead last among 10 industrialized nations, with the report concluding the United States was “in a class all by itself,” and found that the United States was a “clear outlier.” It’s been beaten to death by this point, but it’s true that we don’t have a healthcare system in the United States—we have a “sickcare system.”

Back at the crime scene, shell casings with the words “delay” and “deny” were found there. However, we don’t need bullets to remind us of how Americans are continuing to struggle with the realities of our current healthcare system every day.

Perhaps nowhere better have we seen the dysfunctional nature of our healthcare system demonstrated than with the astronomical insulin prices facing diabetic Americans. A few years back, VICE News reported on this issue. In one of their reports, they spotlighted a diabetic woman in the San Diego area who would drive to the Mexico border on a monthly basis, park her car, and then walk across the border to Mexico to a purchase her insulin from a Mexican pharmacy. She was saving nearly $1,000 a month purchasing her insulin from Mexico by doing this.

Unfortunately, there is always going to be a conflict of interest inherent in a for-profit healthcare system, as profits and people are always going to be on an inevitable collision course. Likewise, there will always be excessive suffering as a result of this.

It’s understandable that people feel that this healthcare system is ruthless towards people, as fundamentally these financial decisions are inherently amoral. There has also been a trend towards further automation and AI across the industry, which will only accelerate with the AI and Web 3 revolutions now underway.

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With regards to prescriptions, millions of Americans continue to unnecessarily suffer due to companies like United Healthcare rejecting medications that patients need. In some instances, those Americans will die if they don’t receive these medications—and at this point their voices will be silenced. We must continue to fight not only for ourselves, but for those who have been silenced.

I have also personally fought this battle against United Healthcare. However, as angry and as sick as I have been at them for rejecting the medication that I’ve needed, there has never been a point where gunning down their CEO has been the right response.

Luckily, I have finally resolved this issue after a multi-year battle, but no American should have to fight like I have with an insurance company over any medication, or any care that they need. We are living in the richest country in the world, and yet it often seems like we are living in a dystopian science fiction novel.

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The biggest theme to this story is anger. What matters though is what we do with that anger. In that moment when we are at are at our very worst, what are we going to do? Are we going to be building a gun? Are we going to be printing out a T-shirt with a murderer on it to sell on the Internet? Or, is there something else we can do instead?

It’s now more than ever we need to move towards abolishing private insurance and moving towards a single payer system, as we are reaching the breaking point in America. As harrowing as this tragedy must be for the Thompson family, if there’s a silver lining to this story, it’s in that its reinvigorated the conversation about healthcare reform in America.

This is not a battle that is going to be won over the Internet, but that one that needs real reform in Congressional action. People are sick and tired of waiting. Some have waited for so long that they have literally died waiting. People are naturally looking for a hero to the end of this story. What I do know is that the name of that hero is definitely not Luigi. We are still looking for our Mario.