The assassination of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson has triggered tasteless celebrations and bad taste support for the gunman who killed him.
Mr Thompson was shot outside the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday morning by a masked assassin, who remains on the run and whose motive has not been disclosed.
As news of the cold-blooded killing spread, thousands declared they were happy at news of the horrific killing of the 50 year-old father of two and even cooed over the murderer’s apparent good looks.
The moderators of the r/medicine forum had to close a Reddit thread after news of Mr Thompson’s death collected more than 500 replies, often critical of UnitedHealthcare. The top comment, from a nurse, was a lengthy parody of a template response denying pay-out for the victim.
‘We understand that you were actively “bleeding out,” but this does not exempt you from exploring lower-cost care pathways,’ the post said.
UnitedHealthcare, the biggest health insurer by market share in America, was rocked by protests over the alleged systematic denial of pay-outs to patients earlier this year.
Authorities found three live bullets and three spent casings at the scene, which they said had the words ‘depose’, ‘deny’ and ‘defend’ scrawled on them.
This drew comparison to the similarly titled 2010 book ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’ – a scathing criticism of ‘why insurance companies don’t pay out and what you can do about it’ – and sparked wide speculation online.