How UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting sparked online debate over US health insurance

The chief executive of a US health insurance company shot dead in New York was described as a "dear friend" and "highly respected colleague" by UnitedHealth Group.

But online, the conversation has been different.

The death of Brian Thompson has sparked debates about his company UnitedHealthcare and the state of US health insurance.

Sky News analysed a series of viral posts circulating on platforms such as X and TikTok since Thompson's shooting. While many of the posts we reviewed went as far as to mock his death, others show how a wider conversation about frustrations in America over health insurance is unravelling.

Posts in the United States across social media networks X, TikTok, and Facebook referencing "health insurance" more than tripled in the wake of Thompson's death, according to data from social media monitoring tool Talkwalker.

In the three days before the assassination, 37,200 posts mentioned "health insurance". That has increased by 350% to 166,600 in the three days since.

While not all of these posts are necessarily linked to Thompson, the sharp increase was seen in the days after he was killed.

Investigators are still searching for the masked gunman who shot Thompson and have not yet identified a motive in the killing. But the CEO's wife has said he received recent threats.

Read more:
Killer a 'practised, seasoned, trained professional'
What we know about New York shooting so far

Americans 'needlessly die'

Among the viral posts is one from a Columbia professor who said on X that we mourn the deaths of the Americans who "needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires".

The post has over 5.7 million views and while some criticised the professor and called it "insensitive", it's not the only popular post that shared frustrations over inequality within the healthcare system in the US.

Data shows one-third of claims denied by UnitedHealth

Some posts compared Thompson's death to people who were "denied coverage" by his health insurance company.

A chart shared widely on X claims to show insurance denial rates by UnitedHealthcare exceed those of competitors, using data from consumer finance website ValuePenguin.

This is consistent with publicly available data from 2023 analysed by Sky News, with one third of claims denied by UnitedHealthcare on average, compared to around one in five (19%) among all issuers.

This is based on transparency data collected by the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which cover only claims from individuals, not those on employee plans.

Among insurers that handle larger volumes of customers, three of the five companies with the biggest track record for rejecting claims were branches of UnitedHealthcare. Alabama customers fared worst with more than two in five (42%) of claims rejected.

Criticisms of UnitedHealthcare not new

Critical comments left on Thompson's last LinkedIn post a year ago show the frustrations around UnitedHealthcare and its chief executive are not entirely new.

Thompson had shared a post saying his company works "every day to find ways to make health care more affordable", but the comments section shows a series of complaints from people using UnitedHealthcare.

Deny, defend, depose

While the exact motive for the shooting remains unclear, on Thursday law enforcement officials revealed the ammunition found at the scene was emblazoned with the words "deny", "defend" and "depose" - echoing a phrase used by insurance industry critics.

It mimics the phrase "delay, deny, defend", which is commonly used by lawyers and insurance industry critics to describe tactics used to avoid paying claims, and the title of a book critical of the insurance industry published in 2010 called Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.