A person holds a sign while standing on the roadside near the McDonald’s restaurant where a suspect in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2024. Matthew Hatcher | ReutersThe deadly, targeted shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry, renewed calls for reform and reignited a debate over health care in the U.S. Almost no expert, provider, or patient would say U.S. health care works as it should for patients. The problem is deciding how to improve it.Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, as the CEO headed to the annual investor day of his company’s parent, UnitedHealth Group. Investigators have said Mangione was a critic of UnitedHealthcare and the broader health-care industry.The killing sparked a flood of social media posts voicing negative experiences with insurers, morbid praise and justification for Thompson’s killing and threats toward other insurance executives – igniting frustrations that have bubbled for years. Those reactions drew rebukes from others who condemned them as inhumane after Thompson’s death. U.S. patients spend far more on health care than anywhere else in the world, yet have the lowest life expectancy among large, wealthy countries, according to the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. Over the past five years, U.S. spending on insurance premiums, out-of-pocket co-payments, pharmaceuticals and hospital services has also increased, government data shows.Many patients, advocacy groups and experts say the industry and U.S. health-care system are flawed or broken entirely, often burdening Americans who simply need care with exorbitant costs and daunting hurdles. But there is less consensus on the root cause of the insurance issues and how exactly to fix American health care, a complicated and entrenched system for delivering services and treatments that costs the nation more than $4 trillion a year. Some experts acknowledged that insurers play a valuable role and must deal with a larger system where multiple stakeholders balance providing care with profit motives. Other experts also noted that insurers have had to grapple with pressures on their businesses, such as lower government reimbursement rates for private Medicare plans and higher medical costs among enrollees in those programs. UnitedHealthcare in particular is also grappling with the fallout from a massive ransomware attack in February targeting its company, Change Healthcare, which processes medical claims.But patients and advocacy groups stressed that those companies’ decisions often come at the expense of patients. Insurers’ moves to rein in costs for services can often lead to denied or delayed claims, higher premiums and unexpected bills, w …
