UnitedHealth’s social media was flooded with scathing comments after the apparent assassination of its executive in New York City.
When the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was killed in a targeted shooting Wednesday morning in New York, politicians from his home state of Minnesota posted sympathetic messages on social media. But those responses of support were soon drowned out by a very different tone, as people shared horror stories of being denied covered by the health insurance company and made morbid jokes comparing the CEO’s death to the ways they’ve been mistreated by the U.S. health care system.
A Facebook post by UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, said it was “deeply saddened and shocked at the passing of our dear friend and colleague Brian Thompson.” But that post has garnered over 11,000 laughing emojis as of the time of this writing, far outweighing the more somber emojis used to express condolences. Comments have been turned off for that post, but shares included comments like “I would offer thoughts and prayers but they are not covered as they are out of network.”
An Instagram post from the company was similarly locked down, stopping average users from commenting directly, but other posts on the platform also had scathing comments. On a post from last week, which discussed ways to manage holiday stress, commenters didn’t hold back: “My empathy is out of network for this one.”
“Sorry. But my insurance and Medicaid don’t cover Thoughts and Prayers,” read one comment with hundreds of likes, echoing the sentiment that had turned into a meme.
“Judging by the public reaction I think the bigger story should be why this doesn’t happen more often,” read another comment.
Other comments got more personal, with people sharing their stories of being denied coverage by UnitedHealthcare and having to pay large sums of money to survive: “My uncle paid you guys for 22 years without missing a single payment and then when he died you denied his life insurance claim.
