Op-Ed: The Cup of Wrath

By Eli PlaskettA technical journalist with a local Cincinnati publishing company& & This week, with a black-humored sigh of relief, millions of people have bitterly mocked the murder of a man whose avarice has caused more human suffering than all but the worst of history’s myriad monsters. And today, a gaggle of pearl-clutching scolds have raised their hands in shock — shock, I tell you — that the average American feels no sympathy for the single man who has done the most to drive other human beings into poverty, homelessness and an early grave.& & & UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson helmed a company that denied insurance claims at twice the rate of its competitors, causing hundreds of thousands of human beings to miss out on necessary medications and medical procedures, or else take on enormous debt to access this life-saving and health-making care. He instated and enforced the policies that forced people into poverty or an early grave because denying healthcare to his company’s customers made him and his fellow shareholders obscenely wealthy. Millions of people paid into his company on the promise of having a backstop when their health failed them, and he broke that promise every day to...