Luigi Mangione: A Hero to the People, A Terrorist to Dignitaries

Which industry do you think generates the most revenue in the United States? Is it the technology sector, which has produced everything from the computer you are reading this article on to vehicles that allow mankind to touch the skies? Is it the famous entertainment industry? Is it oil and energy, which the US has gone to war for and ended hundreds of thousands of lives over?

It’s none of these.

The largest industry in the United States, by far, is the Healthcare industry. The second highest is the United States’ booming technology sector, which contains global giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, yet it makes only half of what hospitals make; this is because Americans pay far more for treatment than anywhere else in the world. In fact, Americans pay more than $250 for a single vial of insulin that only costs around $2 to produce, up to ten times more expensive than other countries. Insulin is so expensive in this country that U.S. residents actually find it cheaper and more rational to travel to Canada to purchase insulin, where it costs approximately $35 per vial.

The average person cannot afford this cost, which is why they turn to healthcare providers such as UnitedHealthcare to pay for their treatment. However, despite being the richest health insurance company, United has the highest denial rate in the country; a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee report found that United rejected 22.7 percent of post-acute prior authorization requests, with an overall rejection rate to be 7.6 percent. Other investigators determined the figure to be around 33 percent, but it is incredibly difficult to ascertain the real number; even though the Affordable Health Care Act set into law over a decade ago requiring insurance companies to disclose their denial rates, the government has only collected a modicum of accurate reports on denial rates. Since insurance companies spend a collective $150 million on lobbying government officials annually, it is entirely possible that they are trying to keep this information hidden from the public eye.

Insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare have even implemented systems that have made claim checks incredibly inaccurate; In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when global health was the number one concern, UnitedHealthcare decided to begin using an automated healthcare service called NaviHealth. However, the system had an error rate of ninety percent, leading seniors under UnitedHealth insurance to have claims for essential medications to be denied.

A Man Named Luigi

Luigi Mangione is a 26-year-old engineer who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He founded a book club in Honolulu, was valedictorian at Gilman High School… and he allegedly murdered United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson using an untraceable gun that he built. While he has yet to speak to the public, his handwritten manifesto and various online accounts indicate a clear hatred towards the United States Healthcare system and its executives, whom he referred to as “parasites.”

After killing Thompson and fleeing New York, Mangione was found in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was recognized by one of the workers. Mangione has since been charged with several crimes, including murder in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; New York and Pennsylvania are both bringing forth these charges, as well as the Federal Government.

What shocked many people is that he is specifically being charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism. When people think of terrorists, they tend to think of al-Qaeda crashing a plane into the Twin Towers and sending the world into a panic, or the Ku Klux Klan, who were known for lynching innocent civilians for no other reason than the color of their skin. So why is Mangione on the same list as these organizations?

The legal definition of terrorism is not the same as the operating definition that society seems to have; according to Cornell Law, terrorism includes crimes that are made in order to influence a policy by intimidation or coercion. This means that the prosecution will have to prove that Mangione wanted other Healthcare executives or politicians to be intimidated into fixing the healthcare system.

While this may seem to be a strange choice for a charge, it makes sense once you take a look at what the Federal Government and the city of New York are using this case to do.

Mangione was transported to New York in a helicopter, and was surrounded by dozens of police officers fully armed with assault rifles, bulletproof vests, and helmets; he’s being made out to be a larger threat than he truly is to make an example out of him, to make American citizens afraid of attempting to reform the Healthcare system, and this isn’t the first time Healthcare reform has been blocked.

A History of Healthcare Reform

Luigi Mangione was not the first man to conceive a plan to reform the US Healthcare system. Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Bill Clinton all drafted bills that never were passed, in part due to medical organizations lobbying and launching advertisement campaigns against them. Organizations such as the American Medical Association spent over $20 million in 2022 alone, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America is the third highest lobbying organization in the United States. Members of the medical industry have an incentive to ensure that the healthcare industry does not change because if there is reform, they potentially lose out on profits.

It’s not just insurance companies, but doctors as well. If the government imposes universal healthcare, doctors would have less control over their prices, and would not be able to impose high prices, and therefore receive less profits.

The United States is the only developed country that does not provide universal healthcare, and corporations have enacted measures to keep it this way.

What’s Next

The Judge of Mangione’s trial is Katherine H Parker, who is married to a former Pfizer executive, and according to one report, owns between $50,000 to $100,000 in Pfizer stocks. Insurance company stocks all fell after Thompson’s death, and a not-guilty ruling in this trial may have a similar effect. This is a clear conflict of interest for Judge Parker, and she needs to be replaced with a judge who will not be impacted by the outcome of this case.

While evidence and the judge are not in Mangione’s favor, it is still possible for him to walk away from the murder charge by means of jury nullification.

Jury nullification is when a jury finds a Defendant not guilty despite all of the evidence proving that they are. It happens when the jury believes that the Defendant did the criminal act, but they do not believe that the Defendant deserves to be punished. While jury nullification is quite rare, the chances of it happening in this case is considerably high.

When details were released about the killing of Brian Thomson, people began rallying in support of Mangione. Protestors were seen outside of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, chanting “Free Luigi!” Online, T-shirts are being sold with a picture of Mangione plastered in front. Memes have been circulating about the death of Thomson.

You don’t typically see people so calm about a man being murdered, but in this case, people are celebrating his death, and have been viewing Mangione as a man who justly delivered retribution and does not deserve punishment.

People are tired of healthcare companies charging insane premiums and not doing what they are paid to do. They are tired of having limited treatment options due to their financial situation and insurance coverage. After over a hundred years of fighting for a just healthcare system, it seems as if there may soon be a major change in the system, but unfortunately, it required the death of a man to do so.

It's not certain that Mangione will be acquitted. It’s not certain that suddenly Healthcare executives are going to apologize for essentially scamming customers out of their money, and sometimes their lives. But what is certain is that American citizens, regardless of their political beliefs, are being united by a common goal for possibly the first time in American history.