Love First and CEO Brian Thompson’s Murder

What is the most aspirational, loving ideal we could pursue, and what is a realistic and nuanced point of view for people?

What is the Love First take on the murder of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson?

First of all, in Love we don't celebrate the death of anyone, not even for the purposes of saving more lives. Using the classic trolley problem as an example, if one were to pull the lever to sacrifice one life to save ten thousand, one could argue it was an ethical choice AND regret the killing of the one life.

In Brian Thompson's case, countless people are making and sharing jokes at his demise. The parent company's Facebook post has overwhelmingly laugh-emoji reactions on it, sending a clear message to the ruling class where the people stand.

While Love First would not condone doing such things, it also recognizes the validity of people's experiences. Thompson, as CEO, was most directly responsible for the deaths of many tens of thousands (far more than all serial killers combined), maybe even millions of Americans by choosing profits over life-saving care. Millions more were forced to suffer, struggle, and incur massive medical debt—many of whom bankrupted by it—despite their insurance policies covering their situation. Thompson made the decision to continue using an AI system that was shown to be horrendously inaccurate, denying valid claims at astonishing rates, because it made the company billions of dollars to steal that money from sick people instead.

Love First values truth and context, ownership of actions, and restoring balance. Thompson had ample opportunity to right some of the many wrongs he had caused and enabled, but he continued down the path of greed.

That path leads to a premature endpoint for many, especially when it comes at the direct cost of other people's lives, livelihoods, health and wellbeing.

How many millions of Americans have seen their loved ones die or go bankrupt because of UHC's fraudulent practices?

How many million lives were ruined or severely disrupted for things they had no control over, but UHC decided milking them for profit was more important than giving them access to healthcare?

How many millions of people have a righteous fury burning in their hearts for someone like Thompson?

Love First tells us to Question Everything, but in this case, motives for the murder are abundant. So instead, let's ask: what can we learn?

We've learned that the murder may well have contributed to a different health insurance provider walking back a policy change it had announced this week, which would have denied coverage for anesthesia past a certain time limit during surgeries. There are plenty non-intimidating reasons why that policy is just pure greed and completely contrary to caring for people, but if the shockwave of Thompson's death played a role in changing some executives' minds on how nakedly greedy they could be, then that is cause for celebration all the same. (There's a lesson here about learning the difference between increasing profits or shareholder value ethically, and exploiting people.)

We've learned that millions of Americans are really fed up with the oligarchy and the plutocracy of this country—in fact, a poll just last week showed an average of 82% of people across party lines feel that way.

We've also learned that in the wake of this, insurance companies have decided to become shadier and hide the identities of its leadership positions. Obviously there is a concern of protection and safety there, but it's striking that their decision is to become shadier instead of committing to offering better insurance care and support to sick people.

Justice, in this case, was not served. Karmic retribution, maybe, but not justice. Justice would have been UHC paying the medical fees of all the people whose money they stole—including fees that actually were out of coverage, as a form of reparations. Justice would have been the UHC executive leadership team serving prison sentences for their fraudulent practices. Justice would have been giant payouts to all who were taken advantage of by UHC. Justice would have been a commitment from UHC to a nation-wide Universal Healthcare system, a change in its policies to expand coverage, a ceasing of its fraudulent practices and problematic use of AI, and more.

Our world will know that kind of justice eventually.

Today was not that day, and so we continue building a world with Love as best we can, hoping to convince and inspire those in power to willingly make such changes, before it's too late.