Crowds of people camped at the Manhattan Criminal Court in support of Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder, with posters, trucks and billboards stating “Free Luigi.”
While it may seem immoral to support an alleged murderer, the support for Mangione is an understandable reaction to the current state of the U.S. healthcare insurance and legal system.
A primary reason for people to support Mangione is their frustration toward Thompson and UnitedHealthcare. A Senate committee investigation into Medicare Advantage plans concluded that UnitedHealthcare, Humana and CVS were intentionally denying claims to increase profits. In addition, the companies were expanding their use of artificial intelligence to automate the processing of healthcare claims.
“UnitedHealthcare’s prior authorization denial rate for post-acute care surged from 10.9 percent in 2020, to 16.3 percent in 2021, to 22.7 percent in 2022. During this time, it was implementing multiple initiatives to automate the process,” the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations stated.
Thompson also perpetuated the illusion that United Healthcare was working to help its clients, as shown by his last LinkedIn post: “We work every day to find ways to make #healthcare more affordable, including reducing the cost of life-saving prescription drugs.”
Commenters shared their negative experiences with United HealthCare and its parent company UnitedHealth Group, stating the company is not making healthcare more affordable.
“UnitedHealth Group is failing my mother by not providing her the basic care to get better and back her life. You continue to delay any decision making and authorizations which is compromising her health even more — and if she doesn’t get back to her baseline, UnitedHealth Group is partially responsible,” Andrea Huspeni commented.
Mangione himself faced complications from a spinal fusion surgery and suffered from spondylolisthesis and Lyme disease.
“It could be the endless agony from the moment you wake up to the moment you manage to fall asleep, if you’re able to sleep,” Yoni Ashar, a professor and expert in pain science at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said.
Given the rising denial rate and interest in automating healthcare claims, UnitedHealthcare has shown it does not care for human needs. As human beings, chronic pain is a universal struggle, so it becomes much easier for people to sympathize with Mangione after knowing the agony he endured.
Another aspect of Mangione’s support comes from the legal system’s charges against him, one of which was terrorism. Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, stated Mangione’s treatment and charges were excessive.
“He is being treated differently — because he is being held in federal custody — than any other person who would be facing serious Murder 1 charges in New York State court… the fact that he is being prosecuted by three jurisdictions for one event. It all is about one thing,” Agnifilo said.
The high security surrounding Mangione further infuriated the public. From Mangione’s perp walk surrounded by armed police and Mayor Eric Adams to the recent court appearance where he was in a bulletproof vest and cuffed at the hands and feet, people noticed Mangione was being made to look more menacing than necessary.
“I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city,” Adams said. However, mayors typically do not attend perp walks of people in federal custody. Adams’ presence was criticized as an attempt to improve his own public image after his own federal indictment.
Agnifilo also stated that evidence was suppressed and not given to the defense team in a timely manner. When watching a recent HBO documentary on Mangione, Agnifilo saw the Chief of Detectives and Adams “talking about the evidence in Luigi’s case, talking about police paperwork that we don’t have, talking about forensics that we have not yet received.”
“And so it’s outrageous that they have time to go and prejudice Mr. Mangione’s ability to receive a fair trial and go out and make these statements but not give this to us,” Agnifilo stated.
Mangione’s support comes from people who have had to experience pain or witness a loved one’s pain, while also suffering financially at the hands of unhelpful healthcare insurance. For insurance companies to profit from their customers’ most intimate and fragile moments is one of the most sinister aspects of the for-profit healthcare industry.
It is understandably difficult to feel remorse for the leader of a company that valued money over human lives. It is even more difficult to hate the person who stood up against an unjust system and is set to face an unreasonable consequence.
