Moderators Delete Reddit Thread as Doctors Torch Dead UnitedHealthcare CEO
Doctors in one of the Internet’s top medical communities have turned on the murdered UnitedHealthcare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson in such brutal fashion that Reddit moderators deleted a thread on the killing.
The moderators of r/medicine closed the thread, posted Wednesday after news broke that Thompson was shot dead outside the New York Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, after it racked up over 500 replies.
The commenters overwhelmingly criticized—and satirized—the insurer’s alleged denial of coverage to sick and dying Americans in order to juice profits.
The top comment, which received hundreds of supporting upvotes from other users, mocked UHC’s notorious track record for refusing to pay out insurance claims and is written as a lengthy, spoof rejection letter from the company.
Addressed to an unnamed applicant—following “a careful review of the claim submitted for emergency services on December 4, 2024″—it informs them they are being rejected for coverage because “you failed to obtain prior authorization before seeking care for the gunshot wound to your chest.”
“If you would like to appeal the fatal gunshot, please call 1-800-555-1234 with case # 123456789P to initiate a peer to peer within 48 hours of the fatal gun shot,” wrote one user.
Another paraphrased the early 20th Century trade union lawyer Clarence Darrow: ″I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."
Dozens and dozens more expressed similar sentiment. ...
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“I cannot even guess how many person-years UHC has taken from patients and their families through denials,” they wrote. “It has to be on the order of millions. His death won’t make that better, but it’s hard for me to sympathize when so many people have suffered because of his company.”
“What has bothered me the most is people that put «fiduciary responsibility» (eg profits) above human lives, none more so than this company as run by him," wrote another medical doctor...“When other’s human lives are deemed worthless, it is not surprising to have others view your life of no value as well.”
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Under Thompson’s leadership, UHC faced intense criticism for being one of America’s most ruthlessly profit-minded moneymaking healthcare firms.
According to research by ValuePenguin citing in-network claim data, it “is the worst insurance company for paying claims with about one-third of claims denied.”
In September, a Senate report excoriated UHC and two other large insurers, Humana and CVS, for allegedly denying patients access to post-acute care in order to increase profits.