The December 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, ignited a national conversation about the brutality of the health insurance industry. On December 19, thousands of Amazon workers launched the largest strike against the multi-billion dollar company in US history.
What do these two events have in common? In both cases, the state, including police departments, prosecutors, et cetera, have mobilized their resources firmly on the side of a threatened and embattled minority class of billionaires and millionaires.
City officials allege that death of CEO evokes terror
The multi-day manhunt for Thompson’s assassin was closely watched by working people across the country, especially the millions who have been personally victimized by the health insurance industry.
Luigi Mangione was tracked down at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania after allegedly killing Thompson outside of an investor conference in midtown Manhattan. On December 19, the NYPD and city officials including New York City Mayor Eric Adams orchestrated an elaborate “perp walk” in which Mangione was photographed while being escorted to a New York federal prison. When Adams was asked by the press why such a publicity stunt was necessary, the mayor answered, “The intentional shooting, and the response after, really traumatized the entire industry, not just the CEOs, but the employees.” Adams continued, “I wanted to look him in the eye and state that you carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love.”
Mangione has been charged with first-degree murder “in furtherance of an act of terrorism” by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Bragg has argued that Mangione intended to “evoke terror” by killing Thompson, emphasizing that the shooting occurred “in one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike, and commuters and businesspeople just starting out on their day.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro responded to the attention surrounding Thompson’s killing, lamenting that “some attention in this case, especially online, has been deeply disturbing as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer.”
“In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint,” he continued. Only months prior, however, Shapiro shared a video of himself signing his name onto US missiles bound for the Russia–Ukraine war.
Thompson’s killing has drawn comparisons to the everyday brutality and terror the health insurance industry inflicts on those seeking care.
Thompson was not just any other health insurance CEO. He was the leader of the most profitable health insurance company in the entire country, ruthlessly increasing the corporate profit margin through skyrocketing prior authorization claim denials from 8% to 22.7%. Under his tenure, the company faced legal trouble for utilizing artificial intelligence with a 90% error rate to deny the claims of elderly patients who were entitled to care through Medicare, one of the nation’s few public healthcare programs.
His death indeed sent shockwaves of fear throughout the ruling class. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield quickly retracted a particularly violent policy, in which the health insurance corporation announced that it would not pay for the complete duration of anesthesia for surgical procedures, a move which was denounced by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
Meanwhile, Thompson’s replacement, new UHC CEO Andrew Witty, appears to be just as brutal as his predecessor, claiming that UHC serves as an important barrier against “unnecessary care” being delivered to patients. “What we know to be true is that the health system needs a company like UnitedHealth Group,” said Witty.
Doctors have long been sounding the alarm about how the health insurance industry only detracts from the overall health of patients. While US healthcare spending is by far the highest of any country in the world, the country has the lowest life expectancy among other nations with a similar GDP.
The public’s sympathy towards Luigi Mangione is indicative of the frustration of working people at not being able to access care despite paying their hard-earned money to health insurance companies like UHC.
The outsized reaction of the state against Mangione shows that the government is far more willing to protect corporate class interests over patient interests. Last week, a 42-year-old mother was arrested in Florida after she verbally expressed outrage against her insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (of anesthesia-denial fame), at denying her insurance claim. During a frustrating phone call with the company, she allegedly said to the health insurance representative, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.” “Delay, deny, depose” were the words written on bullet casings found at the site of Thompson’s killing, and are likely to refer to the strategy insurance companies use to deny claims, referred to as “delay, deny, defend.”
The state has therefore determined that it is perfectly legal for profitable corporations to employ a “delay, deny, defend” strategy that contributes to the negative health outcomes and lower life expectancy of US patients—but it is criminal for patients to even utter these words in frustration.
Amazon workers keep up the class struggle
The class struggle is kept alive by Amazon workers, who have boldly kept up the picket line in front of major Amazon fulfillment centers, challenging the operations of the multi-billion dollar company. These workers have faced direct threats by the state to their free speech rights in a very similar way, as well as the casual brutality of the Amazon corporation. A recent investigation launched by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee) found that “Amazon’s failure to ensure safe working environments—based in large part on its unsustainable rates and productivity quotas—results in debilitating injuries” and that “Amazon has studied the connection between speed requirements and worker injuries for years, but it refuses to implement injury-reducing changes because of concerns those changes might reduce productivity.”
Amazon responded to the report, calling it “an attempt to collect information and twist it to support a false narrative,” and claiming that “our employees’ safety is and always will be our top priority.”
Thousands of workers at Amazon facilities across the country walked off the job on December 19 in the largest strike against the company in US history, demanding that the company finally recognize the will of the workers to form unions with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. At the picket line in Queens, the New York Police Department showed a blatant willingness to help Amazon achieve keep up production by forcing the picket apart to let delivery vans through and arresting a delivery driver for attempting to join the line. The first day of their strike, the NYPD arrested the driver, Jogernsyn Cardenas, along with 30-year Teamster and worker leader Antonio Rosario. NYPD even deployed a Long Range Acoustic Device to threaten mass arrests of all picketers and locked arms in order to let delivery vans through the picket line.
Rosario and Cardenas were later released from NYPD custody and both went straight back to the picket line, where they received a hero’s welcome.
The second day on the picket line, Rosario and Cardenas were back on the scene, with Rosario leading chants up and down the line of, “we work hard, everyday, we make them billions, everyday!”
Also back on the picket line were the NYPD, with their LRAD system once again threatening mass arrests of workers if they did not agree to break up the picket line to let Amazon delivery vans through.
Rosario, a veteran of the historic 1997 strike of UPS workers, spoke to Peoples Dispatch about how he felt being on the picket line on the second day. “I wish I could say it felt good [being on the line], but the police officers are violating our first amendment rights, they’re threatening to arrest our workers. We don’t want our workers being arrested.”
“We’re allowing a few trucks out every few minutes. We’re trying to be compliant, because we don’t want our workers being arrested. At the end of the day, we just want these workers to be safe, fight for better pay, get a union, get all the things that union workers have,” Rosario continued. “This is a multi-billion dollar corporation. It looks to me like the cops are protecting them, not us. But we’re gonna continue to be out here, keep our spirits up.”
Dave Cintron, Teamsters Local 804 Trustee on the picket line supporting Amazon workers, told Peoples Dispatch, “This is a tactic that they’re using to try to get these trucks out, which is not right,” Cintron continued. “They’re actually helping out Amazon.”
Images and videos of the arrest of Cardenas and Rosario, as well as NYPD facilitating the flow of Amazon deliveries, have circulated social media, exposing the role the NYPD has played firmly on the side of the company in keeping its profits up.
But workers are not backing down from the fight—instead, they are only escalating, with Amazon workers at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island, the site of the first successful union drive of Amazon workers in the country, joined the strike at midnight on Friday night.
“I am thrilled to be part of this fight,” said Valerie Strapoli, a worker at JFK8. “Amazon has shoved us around for so long, but we have the momentum now.”
