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About seven chief executives of publicly traded companies die each year, he said, but almost always from health complications or accidents. A targeted attack could have much larger implications.
“The insurance industry is not the most loved, to put it mildly,” Meier said. “If you’re a C-suite executive of another insurance company, I would be thinking, ‘What’s this mean for me? Am I next?’”
Brian Thompson’s business generated $US281 billion ($437 billion) in revenue last year.Credit: AP
A longtime UnitedHealthcare employee said staff had been aware for years that members were unhappy. Thompson was one of the few executives who wanted to do something about it, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company does not allow workers to speak publicly without permission.
In speeches to employees, Thompson spoke about the need to change the state of healthcare coverage in the country and the company culture, which were topics other executives avoided, the employee said.
Already, there is heightened concern among some public-facing health care companies, said Eric Sean Clay, president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety. The trade group includes members which offer security to some of the largest healthcare companies in North America.
“The CEOs are quite often the most visible face of an organisation,” he said. “Sometimes people hate on that individual and wish to do them harm.”
Police officers at the scene after Wednesday’s shooting.Credit: AP
But few health care companies provide security for their executives, he said, in part to avoid bad optics or because it might seem unnecessary.
In the hours after the shooting early on Wednesday, social media exploded with anger toward the insurance industry and Thompson.
“I pay $1300 a month for health insurance with an $8000 deductible ($23,000 yearly). When I finally reached that deductible, they denied my claims. He was making a million dollars a month,” read one comment on TikTok.
Another commenter wrote, “This needs to be the new norm. EAT THE RICH.”
The man wanted over the shooting.Credit: AP
“The ambulance ride to the hospital probably won’t be covered,” wrote a commenter on a TikTok video in which another user featured an audio clip from the Netflix show Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. In it, the queen makes a dramatic show of faux sorrow over a death.
The shooting prompted a wrenching outpouring of patients and family members who also posted horror stories of insurance claim reimbursement stagnation and denials.