Saint Louis U. professor says CEO’s company was ‘evil’
Two professors at Columbia and Saint Louis universities are facing criticism for social media posts that appear to trivialize the recent murder of a major health insurance company’s CEO.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed Wednesday outside a New York City hotel in what police believe was a targeted attack, the New York Post reports. Police said they are still searching for the suspect.
In a series of X posts Wednesday, Yolonda Wilson, a health care ethics professor at Saint Louis University, said she was “not sad” about Thompson’s murder.
The reason she gave was problems she experienced with his “evil” company, which covers her health care.
“So, while I’m not rejoicing about the UHC CEO being shot dead in the street, I’m not sad about it, either,” she wrote. “People deserve better than the US health insurance industry, and chickens come home to roost.”
Wilson said the insurance company unnecessarily denied her surgery two days before it was scheduled.
“What @UHC wanted to approve the claim (a) was stupid and (b) could have been resolved in an email or phone call to my surgeon, but United is evil and wanted to inflict maximum torment, so they denied the claim (after having approved it through prior authorization, btw),” she wrote.
Ultimately, she said she did have the surgery as scheduled, but she and her surgeon had to go through a lot of unnecessary stress with the insurance company to make it happen.
Another professor, Anthony Zenkus at Columbia University, also appeared to make light of the CEO’s death on X.
“Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…. wait, I’m sorry – today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires,” the social work studies professor wrote.
Both professors’ posts attracted a lot of criticism online, with some commenters calling them “heartless” and lacking in empathy.
Responding to a post about the CEO having a wife and children, Zenkus wrote: “I didn’t say it didn’t matter. I will mourn the death of one man after I finish morning the deaths of the nearly 700,000 other people who have died in the past 10 years alone because of private health insurance. It may take a while.”
Another commenter responded to Wilson’s post: “Imagine thinking people deserve to be murdered because insurance is too bureaucratic.”
“Imagine that?” she replied.
The New York Police Department said Thompson appeared to be “targeted” in the attack. Police also are investigating a possible message found on the bullets, including the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend,” according to the New York Post.
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