Violence is never justified, but......

Senator Elizabeth Warren's astounding justification for premeditated murder

The infamous Shakespearean quote, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” could be equally applied to medical insurance company executives, a generally hated professional group to anyone who has battled with their medical insurance for payment of a legitimate claim, which is to say many, if not most people. Of course, no one would take this seriously. Then again……………………

“Violence is never the answer, but…..” This incredible statement by Senator Elizabeth Warren stands as one of the most extraordinary statements by a public figure justifying murderous violence under certain circumstances. Warren, who famously claimed native American ancestry based on a DNA test suggesting she might have a trace of native American blood, even listed her race as “American Indian” on her registration card for the State Bar of Texas in 1986. The Cherokee nation and other Indian groups rejected her claim and she had to walk this back. Warren is a card-carrying member of the woke left that has done more to destroy the rule of law in the US than any other group in our history since the Civil War with open borders, “sanctuary cities”, de-criminalization of theft, and “mostly peaceful” riots. Now she explicitly states that violence is OK when someone is “pushed too far.” What that means exactly she does not spell out. How was Luigi Mangioni pushed too far? The accused killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a well-educated (U Penn graduate), well-to-do 26-year-old with no known direct conflicts with Thompson or United Healthcare. He purportedly committed what amounts to a deliberate assassination because of some issue with medical insurers in general and the people who run these companies. What that issue is remains an unanswered mystery, although one media source claims he had chronic back pain. Surely, this justifies premeditated, cold-blooded murder.

As a physician who has dealt with our broken, and worsening, healthcare system for over thirty years I have more animus toward medical insurance companies than most. They are rapacious and obscenely profitable. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, in 2010, the top insurance companies have made $371 billion in profits and 40% of that has gone to Thompson’s United Healthcare. United Healthcare is also reported to be the worst insurance company in denying claims with one in three claims denied by the company. As CEO of United Healthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer, Thompson, who was only 50 when he was killed, was paid over $10 million in 2023 alone and had a net worth of $43 million.

Just for perspective, if I had earned $300, 000 per year over my 35-year career as a plastic surgeon, Thompson would have out earned me in one year. By the way, I never earned that much from my practice in a single year. My compensation was admittedly low for a plastic surgeon (lowest quartile) but that was due to multiple factors of my choosing- where I practiced, how much I tried to eke every dollar out of my work, my choice of lifestyle, and more. I have never begrudged anyone their income; I have more than I need or deserve.

Over my career I have seen insurance companies deny needed surgery. As a plastic surgeon performing reconstructive surgery, I have seen how undervalued this is by insurers. Some insurers pay so little that they do not compensate for my time and costs of practice. I have routinely had to battle inappropriate denials to be paid for what I did. I expect my requests for authorization for a patient’s surgery to be denied more often than not, usually for reasons that are not clinically justifiable. I watched in dismay as the medical organizations I belonged to, and paid dues to, fell lockstep in with the ACA, which I knew was a scam to eventually gather all medical insurance under a single government-run universal payor. This led to my final break with the American Medical Association.

Today, 14 years after passage of the ACA, family premiums for employer sponsored health insurance average nearly $26,000 per year and employees pay an average of $7000 out of pocket for that coverage. Who can afford this?

I am angry at a system that is rife with abuse and cares nothing about individual patients. I am angry at CEO’s who earn astronomical salaries while we physicians in the trenches battle their company’s arbitrary yet binding rules and regulations on behalf of our patients. I am angry with the lack of accountability and difficulty in communicating with insurers, who are layered up with functionaries who control my ability to care for my patients. Despite this, I have never wished ill of any individual in our broken system and cannot imagine ever resorting to violent action, much less murder. It is disconcerting that we are seeing a groundswell of support for the murder of Thompson with growing donations to a fund for the defense of his alleged killer.

Shame on Warren for her tacit admission that violence may be a reasonable response under certain circumstances. It is amoral, spineless ideologues like her who are complicit in the lawlessness now infecting our nation.

Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS, Senior Fellow at Do No Harm, Founding Fellow at FAIR in Medicine.

My book, The Making of a Plastic Surgeon- Two Years in the Crucible Learning the Art and Science, is available on Amazon as an eBook or in paperback. It for anyone even a little curious about this fascinating, yet misunderstood, specialty.