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An Eye For An Eye Is Not The Way To Deal With Health Insurance Executives
By Frank LoBuono
It was right out of a Hollywood action/thriller Blockbuster. A top executive is coolly, efficiently, and brutally gunned down early in the morning in one of Manhattan’s busiest neighborhoods and at one of its most frenetic times of the year – The Holiday Season. The killing is perpetrated by a hooded, masked assassin who then calmly disappears into the New York morning, audaciously using a rented Citibike in his getaway.
However, it was not a movie. The brazen and brutal murder of United Health Care CEO, Brian Thompson, as captured by security cameras, is both shocking and disturbing. It really shows a cold-blooded assassination of an innocent man. Yes, I said innocent. And there within begins the New-Age paradigm of guilt not by fact, but by insinuation, association, and inuendo.
In today’s era of mass media participation, i.e. the internet, the reaction to the killing was both swift and, in many ways, telling of how we function as a society. This man’s wanton murder was soon used to make an indictment of his character because of his profession – the head of a major health care provider. Some even elevated the assassin to hero status.
Now, at this point, let me make something perfectly clear; I am not a fan of the insurance industry in general and in the health-care part of it in particular. No matter what their ads says about how much they care about people, their prime motivation is profit. The exorbitant salaries of the leaders of these companies (like Mr. Thompson) are a testament to their companies’ wealth. As a photographer covering some of the large insurance companies’ annual meetings, I can assure you that they are alll about the profit margin.
And the idea that a company we pay monthly and who makes enormous profits would/could/does deny life saving health to its customers is abhorrent. Something certainly needs to be done about this.
However, murder is not one of them!
Many, and I mean millions of people, have at least condoned this murder if not actually celebrated it. And I understand their frustration and anger. Virtually all of us, and some more so than others, have been stung by our Health Care Provider making it difficult, if not impossible, to pay for the care we legitimately need. Certainly, some have lost loved ones by being denied critical care or lifesaving drugs simply because of money. I know some of these people personally. It’s heartbreaking, incorrigible, and indefensible. The very idea that innocent people die based on decisions made by executives solely to increase their already ample salaries makes me viscerally sick.
However, we cannot fall into the trap of yielding to our anger so easily, even when we believe it to be righteous. It is simply immoral to wish wanton violence on another human being, especially one that you know nothing more of than he makes a lot of money in a less than popular business. Again, it’s easy to focus one’s rage on a single individual rather than try to topple an entire industry. But that only further debases us, putting us on the same level as the people we’ve come to loathe.
Most of use are familiar with the Biblical saying, “An eye for an eye,” etc. And it certainly appeals to our sense of righteous rage. But there is a newer, more apt rendering of the ancient quote. It is often most attributed to Mahatma Ghandi:
“An eye for an eye just leaves the whole world blind.”
It’s the Holiday Season – you know, the one about “being of good cheer, Peace on Earth, Good Will to All, etc.” But instead of being so caught up with the blatant commercialism of it all, take a moment to remember the real reason for the season. Again, those who are familiar with my writing will know this is not an endorsement of one religious practice over another (yes, it’s OK to say Happy “Holidays” because there are so many to celebrate). For me, it’s another chance to be better, to do things more compassionately and to allow more light into my life. Celebrating the taking of the life of another human being to soothe your sense of divine justice is simply wrong. We can do better.
