Luigi Mangione: Hero or Villain? A Therapist's Perspective

You have to be living under a rock to not know who Luigi Mangione is. In case you are, he is the 26 year-old who allegedly gunned down the CEO of United healthcare two weeks ago. A manifesto was recovered, reportedly written by Luigi, railing against the injustices of the healthcare industry. What’s been fascinating is how swiftly the public has come to Luigi’s defense, with some even letting him as a hero. Below is the blog I wrote for the Weho Times.

Healthcare Fury

People are outraged at our healthcare system. And rightly so. Millions of Americans are driven into financial ruin, and even bankruptcy, just trying to cover basic medical expenses. Moreover, the health insurance companies we pay outrageous premiums to deny coverage for services. we are entitled to. I saw this first hand when I worked in managed care. Ensures deny claims on the prediction that most consumers won’t appeal the decision. To make it simple: we are being ripped off.

What Needs to Change?

While our outrage is clearly justified, it remains to be seen what actions will actually lead to a systemic change. The last major overhaul we saw in our healthcare system came through the affordable care act under Obama. Wow, this was a noble effort, unfortunately, this policy has led to an increase, not a decrease, in healthcare costs for the average American. Most Americans feel incredible financial anxiety when they go to the doctor.

Should We Celebrate Luigi Mangione?

While many folks struggle to find sympathy for the healthcare industry, modeling, and assassin as a hero is also complicated. The truth is that Brian Thompson’s children, no longer have a father and will have to see video footage of his murder, displayed all across the Internet and social media. Also, some of his manifesto doesn’t make sense. For one, he’s very wealthy. So this poverty issue doesn’t really apply to him. Also his complaint that we spend the most on healthcare is reflective of how complex and advanced our medicine is. Another claim he made about the profit position of United Healthcare was also factually wrong. Some would argue that it’s concerning he missed some basic research before murdering the CEO.

Will This Actually Help?

It was widely reported that a proposal from several insurance companies to only cover. A certain percentage of anesthesia was quickly squashed. But my guess is these companies will simply find a way to recoup those profits elsewhere. The truth is our insurance policies are needlessly complicated and it’s almost impossible to know exactly what you’re signing up for ahead of time.

Is Healthcare the Real Problem?

There are several factors that negatively impact our health beyond insurance. Obesity, drug addiction, gun violence all bloat the health care system. The truth is we saddle our healthcare system with a lot of preventable conditions. Take those away and I’m sure costs would go way down. This will likely involve massive overhaul to the food and pharmaceutical industries (another seemingly impossible hurdle to get over).

Don’t Vilify Everyone

It’s also important to be clear where we place plane. I think we can all agree that CEOs are paid closely and played it salaries and benefit from depriving us of our necessary healthcare. But the majority of folks working at insurance companies are just average employees working for a paycheck. They don’t have much influence over our policy and they’re just trying to support themselves in my family like the rest of us are. I don’t think they deserve vitriol.

What Needs to Change

So how can we actually enact change? Why are we still have a private healthcare sector, our government will need to monitor them strictly. The truth is these companies are getting away with abhorrent behavior and no one is stopping them. This isn’t systemic change. Unfortunately, no one has proposed realistic answers to this problem—which is even more frustrating. What’s clear is this event tapped into a collective anger most of us share, and an anger that isn’t going anywhere.

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