On Dec. 4, 2024, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed outside of a New York City hotel. Five days later, the manhunt for the killer terminated with the arrest of Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvanian McDonald’s. The Justice Department charged Mangione with murder and stalking, and he currently awaits trial in a New York City jail.
Instead of condemning this act of violence, 41% of young Americans supported Mangione. He has featured prominently in social media’s “hear me out” trend, wherein users joke about unconventional characters or individuals that they find attractive. Supporters even went as far as to stand outside the courthouses in Pennsylvania and New York during Mangione’s legal proceedings, holding signs that said “Free Luigi!”
The widespread support of Mangione from Americans disillusioned with the broken healthcare system highlights that affordable healthcare is a human right. It’s not an issue between political parties, it’s an issue between social classes.
Ben Shapiro, a far right political commentator offered his perspective on the shooting. After summarizing Mangione’s background, Shapiro condemned those who support Mangione. The comments on Shapiro’s other videos are filled with praise for his conservative ideals, but these comments contained a different message. People lamented that they were tired of the rich telling them what to think, and that Shapiro’s net worth placed him more in line with the weatlthy than with the everyday American. Some shared stories of difficult experiences with health insurance companies, and others told Shapiro that healthcare shouldn’t be politicized.
It’s clear that America is growing a sense of class consciousness. Politicians have tried to make healthcare into a political issue, dividing Americans along party lines on a matter that shouldn’t even be up for debate. An example of this is the political divide over the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which Republicans sought to repeal due to concerns over government spending. Democrats blamed Bill Clinton’s Health Security Act for costing the Democrats a majority in the House and Senate in 1994.
However, the effects of expensive healthcare aren’t faced by just one political party. Data from the CDC shows that in 2021, 9.2 million adults between the ages of 18 and 64 reported not taking a prescribed medicine or not taking a full dose due to cost. This pattern of skipping medicine to save money was most common among adults without insurance. According to the Commonwealth Fund, about 26 million people in the United States do not have health insurance.
Yet, even those that do have health insurance face challenges when it comes to cost. A report from Forbes found that the average cost of an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan is $7,260 a year. It is easy to see how unaffordable the system is when you consider that the average American only makes a little more than $58,000 a year after taxes.
With soaring healthcare costs, it’s no wonder that Americans are fed up with the healthcare system. With the working class fuming against a system that exploits them for the wealthy’s benefit, the scene was set for a “Robin Hood” figure to come along and “save the day.”
Americans wanted a hero to save them from the healthcare system, and they found one in the young, attractive, Ivy League educated Mangione. Americans praised Mangione for standing up to the system despite his act of violence, and it makes sense, when insurance companies deny claims and upend lives daily.
Some see Mangione as the figurehead of a movement against the current healthcare system, but the movement is not moving anywhere. If we want to change the healthcare system, then we as a nation need to stop wasting time arguing over whether Mangione is justified or not. That will change nothing. The issue of expensive healthcare is something that transcends trivial party differences. It affects Americans from all walks of life, and will only be fixed when America stops fighting along the party lines created to divide us and comes together to stand up to protect a human right: affordable access to healthcare for all.
