Health insurance in America: The industry must introspect

A CEO's killing has revealed mass discontent with health insurers

- LISA JARVIS

When news broke that United Health Group's CEO Brian Thompson had been fatally shot on a street outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, the public responded with the kind of vitriol usually reserved for America's most polarizing politicians.

I found myself wincing at the tone of the messages rolling in on my various group threads and social media sites—including from people whose opinions I usually deeply respect. My compass on these things is always how I would want my daughter to hear me react in such a moment. Would I want her to think it's okay to dance on the grave of someone whose sons are now fatherless? I unequivocally do not. Nor would I want her to get the idea that this craven act was justified. [An arrest was made after a five-day man-hunt for the assailant.]

And yet, we cannot ignore the ferocity of the American response—or the fact that no one's gut told them to check it. It lays bare a ground truth: If there's anything this fractured country seems to agree on, it's that the healthcare system is tragically broken, and the companies profiting from it are morally bankrupt. And it shows that most of us have felt harmed by a system that puts profits before patients.