On December 10, financial news agency reported (Editor: Liu Rui) that last week, in the USA.$UnitedHealth (UNH.US)$The news of Insurance Company CEO Brian Thompson being shot and killed in New York City has caused quite a stir. Although the suspect, Luigi Mangione, was arrested this week, the public discourse surrounding this incident is far from settled.

After the shooting, many citizens in the USA felt sympathy and support towards the suspect rather than blame. On various social media platforms, many Americans shared their negative experiences of being denied Insurance coverage and expressed anger over the broader flaws in the USA's medical system.

Meanwhile, several Medical Insurance companies in the USA have removed the executive resume pages from their company websites.

In response to this situation, USA's healthcare company Oscar Health ($Oscar Health (OSCR.US)$During an interview, CEO Mark Bertolini said the "big truth": the USA's health insurance system is outdated and ineffective.

"The USA health insurance system has already collapsed."

Bertolini served as CEO of Aetna from 2010 to 2018 and is considered a veteran in the USA health insurance industry. He believes that the root cause of the recent shooting incident lies in significant flaws within the USA health insurance system.

"The USA public lives in a system designed 80 years ago (post World War II)." He stated, "I believe the USA's health insurance system has essentially collapsed and has been in a state of collapse for some time. For a long time, I have been an advocate for change, and I believe we have ways to make this country better. I think the first step is to ensure our medical system meets individual needs rather than group needs. Currently, our system is largely built around meeting group needs."

Bertolini also stated that he understands the public's reaction. He believes the public's lack of sympathy for Thompson's shooting is understandable, "although the act itself is unkind, considering how disappointed people are with the state of the USA medical system, the USA public's behavior and response are understandable."

He also mentioned that this shooting incident "has sounded the alarm for this industry."

Flaws in the USA health insurance industry.

For years, the USA health insurance system has allowed insurance companies to deny insurance claims through various means—this is almost an open secret in the USA health insurance industry. The USA health insurance system has disappointed many patients and clinicians, and the issue of denial of coverage is also believed to be a motive behind this murder case.

The CEO Thompson, who was recently shot, had increased the denial rate of UnitedHealth Insurance Company to over 30% in recent years, resulting in significant public dissatisfaction. Thompson himself regarded the increase in the denial rate as an important achievement in his career and has publicly boasted about it.

However, alongside the insurance companies denying coverage, an increasing number of Americans are feeling the pain of rising medical costs and denied insurance claims. In this context, violent incidents targeting workers in the USA healthcare system have increased in recent years — but these violent incidents have previously been largely confined to the institutions: from 2006 to 2020, violent attacks against healthcare workers in the USA rose by 70%. This shooting incident marks the first time that executives of insurance companies have faced such blatant public attacks.

Glen Kucera, an executive at the American security company Allied Universal, stated that in recent months, Allied has found a 40% increase in security demand within the healthcare sector in the USA, primarily from clinical doctors in hospitals.

In the past 12 to 14 months, we have deployed a significant amount of additional resources in healthcare institutions. Now this specific case involves an insurance company... it's not as common as it used to be (in healthcare institutions).

The volatility in the Insurance industry will continue.

On Monday, Jared Holz, a medical analyst at Mizuho, stated in a report that the volatility in the USA healthcare insurance industry will persist—especially under the upcoming government leadership of elected President Trump, the USA healthcare insurance sector will continue to face uncertainty.

Holz wrote: "Investors do believe that the incident affecting UNH last week may have an impact on the short-term performance of insurance stocks, and evidently, after the UNH incident, significant fluctuations in the stock prices of UNH and its peers have already occurred."

Following the shooting incident, the stock price of UnitedHealth Group fell by nearly 10% over the past five days, while the stock price of Anthem dropped by 8%.$Cigna Group (CI.US)$The stock price of The Cigna Group dropped by more than 6% during the same period. Even smaller insurance companies like Oscar Health were impacted, falling nearly 12% in the past five days.

Editor/ping