A suspect has been arrested for allegedly assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 in New York City. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, was arrested on Dec. 9 in Pennsylvania. The police believe this was a premeditated murder. Mangione had a “manifesto” on him at the time of his arrest in which he is reported to have condemned the healthcare insurance industry for putting profits over patients, saying “These parasites had it coming.”

A large number of people have expressed understanding of Luigi Mangione’s anger at the industry, while also condemning the violent expression that anger took on. Mangione appears to come from a privileged background, and expressed his justified rage in a way that does not lead to change for the working people that suffer daily from the vile actions of the huge healthcare insurance management industry. UnitedHealthcare and similar corporations which exist to generate obscene profits for the billionaire class, not to meet the needs of the people for healthcare, are rightly hated by great masses of workers and other oppressed peoples in the United States. In 2023, UnitedHealthcare generated $22 billion in profits stolen from patients, doctors and nurses, and transferred to billionaires.

UnitedHealth’s largest shareholders are asset manager giant Vanguard, which owns a 9% share, followed by BlackRock (8%) and Fidelity (5.2%).

Despite recognizing a real issue, Mangione acted in an individualistic manner that doesn’t strengthen the struggle for real change in this system on behalf of the people who require healthcare and their families and communities.

In this time of transition to the MAGA Trump administration, which foments violence as a core principle, and has made violence against migrants a day one priority, people must be careful to avoid confrontations which will be used to justify more violence by the administration. Trump sees violence as a primary means of achieving his goals, as shown by the January 6th anti-people attack on the capital. Only people’s movements built on collective non-violent struggle will be able to successfully resist the MAGA agenda and compel change that meets the needs of the great mass of working and oppressed people in the U.S. and internationally.

Violence is not an answer to social problems. Join us and many others in building a mass movement to reshape the U.S. healthcare system. Reforms like “Medicare for All” are important steps towards a democratically controlled people’s healthcare system that operates on the principle that every person by dint of their existence within the United States deserves affordable or free access to any healthcare they need without corporate or police interference in their personal lives and without interference into their relationship with their caregivers. Doctors and nurses deserve the dignity and respect of practicing their work without such heinous and inhumane corporate oversight. All people in the U.S. deserve to live healthy and happy lives, and to raise their families without concern for access to the necessary healthcare that every person requires at some point in their life.

The Communist Party USA condemns making a profit off the healthcare needs of working people struggling to survive under the stress of work and financial strains in an unjust economic system. We call for a healthcare system that puts the needs of the people before the needs of the corporations and the billionaires for profits.

Let us unite together in the struggle for a U.S. healthcare system that puts people before profits.

Image: Nurses march for healthcare for all at NYC Labor Day Parade by National Nurses United (X)

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