The death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street on December 4 has set off alarm bells in the corporate world. The crime, for which authorities arrested young man Luigi Mangione, was apparently motivated by criticism of the policies of the health insurance industry. The incident generated a social media debate regarding people’s dissatisfaction with the private healthcare system in the United States, resulting in a collective catharsis among those who told their stories about health insurance denying them medical care. With a topic so buzzing on the internet, how can Joe Rogan shy away from sharing his thoughts on it?

But before we get to that…For the unversed: Thompson was assassinated when he was in New York to attend an annual UnitedHealthcare investors meeting. The CEO was reportedly walking down the street when he was shot from behind at around 6:45 am local time by a man in a hooded jacket. The 45-year-old was rushed to the Mount Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead at 7:12 am the same day. As for Mangione, he is a 26-year-old high school valedictorian and an Ivy League graduate who belonged to a wealthy Baltimore family.

Reports state Mangione or his mother were not a customer of the private health insurer, but police say his manifesto mentioned the company as one of the largest corporations in America. As per CNN, an NYPD insurance report stated that the suspect was driven by anger against the health insurance industry and “corporate greed”. The bullet casings that were used to carry out the attack reportedly had the words “Deny”, “Defend” and “Depose”—the alleged tactics insurance companies are accused of using to avoid paying claims, which is exactly what Joe Rogan pointed out…

On episode #2240 of The Joe Rogan Experience, with filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, released December 9, Avary and Rogan shared their collective hatred for the insurance industry. Talking about it, Joe Rogan simply stated that he found insurance companies to be gross, especially healthcare insurance. “Apparently that company is really bad on denying claims,” the UFC color commentator began, to which Avery replied, “30-34% denial rate.” 

“Normal’s like 16%,” Rogan replied back, and added, It’s a dirty, dirty business. The business of insurance is gross. It’s gross, and especially healthcare insurance—just f—–g gross.” 

Notably, UnitedHealthcare has the largest market share of health insurance policies, with roughly $215 billion in revenue. A KFF.org report released in February last year found that denial rates varied from as low as 2% to a staggering 49%. As per Forbes citing a ValuePenguin report, UHC reportedly has the highest number of insurance denials, with an estimated one-third of claims being rejected.

Having said that, according to Roger Avary, the entire industry is doing the devil’s deed. Sharing his story about being denied insurance for his house, he stated, “Well, actually all insurance [is gross]. I live in California and all of a sudden, because I live adjacent to [an] open space…nobody will insure my house because of fire….So, suddenly it’s like I have a house that’s uninsurable. And it’s not just me. It’s everybody and so it’s chaos.”

Promptly, Rogan also brought up his friend’s story, and narrated, “A friend was trying to sell a house in California, and it turned out it was $125,000 a year just to get fire insurance. Like, what? It’s f—–g nuts.”

Well, it does look like Joe Rogan, and Roger Avary are not big fans of the industry as per this discussion on the podcast. This was a scary incident that also shed light on the brewing hatred for people working in the industry. Threatening posters with the message, “Health care CEOs shouldn’t feel safe”, have appeared in different parts of New York City.

One person even went on to tweet in support of Mangione, writing, “When you shoot one man in the street, it’s murder. When you kill thousands by taking away their ability to get treatment you’re an entrepreneur.” This has brought up the major question:

What about the security of CEOs and management working in that sector?

Joe Rogan’s stance on UHC CEO is reflective of anger towards industry bigwigs

Joe Rogan is no stranger to expressing his anger towards top executives of big companies, his friendship with Elon Musk notwithstanding. However, his anger towards the healthcare industry is no secret and was especially evident during the pandemic. Back then, the multi-millionaire podcaster made the former Medical Advisor to the White House Anthony Fauci the target of his criticism. However, unlike many in the general public, Rogan himself is a public figure who won’t take matters into his own hands like the aforementioned Luigi Mangione.

However, he wasn’t surprised at what happened with UHC CEO. When Roger Avery claimed that not many would be upset about the death of Thompson, Rogan too let his firm opinion be known.

The Thompson case has brought to light what some companies do to protect their leaders. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for example, spent $24.4 million on security for Mark Zuckerberg and other executives last year. At Apple, CEO Tim Cook was besieged by email and in person, outside his home. Cook typically travels with security personnel, and the company spent $820,000 to protect executives. In the case of Brian Thompson, who ran one of the largest health insurance businesses in the country, he had made no changes to his safety or changes to his movements or travel plans, even though, according to the widow, he had received threatening messages.

“There had been some threats basically I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him,” Paulette Thompson told NBC news.

Experts believe that the aggressive and polarized political climate, coupled with distrust of today’s technological world, will only make the task of assessing threats against executives even more difficult. Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit healthcare company, said it will temporarily close its offices for safety reasons and have its employees work from home.

A Medica spokesman said the company had also removed its executives’ biographical information from its website as a precaution. UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of the insurer led by Thompson, removed photos of its top executives from its website hours after the incident and then removed their names and biographies.

That’s a pretty alarming situation. What’s your opinion on Joe Rogan’s comments?