S04E11 – Was the Killing of United Healthcare’s CEO the Government’s Fault?

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, Tom, Josh, and Ryan discuss the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson, by Luigi Mangione. Josh starts out by saying that it is murder and wrong. Tommy and Ryan agree that it was murder but also recognize that many see Mangione as a “folk hero” because they are so upset with health insurers who deny coverage a lot to maximize profits. We wrestle with who is at fault here. Tommy and Josh argue that this was inevitable because of crony capitalism and the government not doing a better job of breaking up monopolies and regulating healthcare industries. Ryan doesn’t disagree but points out that this is what capitalism does – ignore people to maximize profits. Tommy and Josh don’t disagree but argue that the government should be preventing that. We wrestle with these issues for a while before concluding that both the government and corporations bear responsibility for leading to a situation in which lots of people are cheering the murder of a CEO by a vigilante who is seen as a folk hero. (Do note we had some connection issues in this episode, which led to some choppy audio but we tried to edit out as much as possible.)