The Scoop: The vast implications of the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO

The killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is sending shockwaves through America in a variety of ways.

Perhaps most noticeable to the average American is the rage his death has unleashed at the health insurance system.

A Facebook post from United Healthcare announcing Thompson’s death received more than 62,000 reactions. But 57,000 of them were the laughing emoji, presumably expressing glee, CNN reported. Go to any social media site just now and you’ll see people sharing stories of denied claims and other insurance woes.

As one Redditor on a popular discussion thread put it: “The one-liner that explains everything immediately goes: ‘Your claim for my condolences has been denied.’”

Corporate safety has become a major issue in the wake of the killing. CEOs are scrambling for security services and webpages showcasing insurance executives’ names, faces and bios have been pulled from the corporate websites.

The killing also had immediate impacts elsewhere in the insurance industry. The day of Thompson’s killing, news began to circulate about a new Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield policy in New York, Connecticut and Missouri that would limit reimbursement for anesthesia. The backlash was swift, with some even sharing photos of the insurance company’s CEO – an action, in light of Thompson’s death, that seemed an implicit threat. Political officials, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul, expressed indignation at the plan.

Just a day later, BCBS announced that the plan would be nixed, blaming “misinformation.”

“To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services,” a statement from the company read. “The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines.”

Why it matters: The ripple effects of this killing could resonate for years, inside and outside the insurance industry. While Thompson’s killer is still at large and the motive is technically unknown, bullet casings left at the scene provide a major clue. Three of the casings were inscribed with the words “delay,” “deny,” and (possibly) “depose,” which seem to reference specific aspects of the insurance claims process.

Safety and security now must be part of the communicator’s considerations: is it wise to put photos and biographical details of executives at controversial industries on their websites, or is it putting those executives at risk? We may see a reduction in thought leadership as leaders worry about putting themselves in the spotlight.

We’ve also seen how this incident can change public tenor – fast. BCBS’ anesthesia policy was released last month and flew largely under the radar until Thompson’s killing put the insurance industry front and center. The entire world can shift in an instant and a policy launched that seemed, from BCBS’ perspective, successful can suddenly become ripe for “misinformation.” While no communications team could have foreseen Thompson’s slaying and how it would impact another company entirely, it was foreseeable that this change would be unpopular. Being prepared to combat misinformation with talking points, social media strategies and a media campaign is vital.

This is a world of constant crisis and intense change. It’s on communicators to help both their organizations and the world make sense of it all.

Editor’s Top Reads:

• Billionaire newspaper owners are flexing their muscles after years of fairly hands-off ownership. While Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has gotten the lion’s share of attention amid a wave of cancellations after the paper declined to endorse a candidate for president, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is now making headlines. Soon-Shiong also blocked his paper from endorsing a presidential candidate, but has more recently made waves for naming a controversial Trump acolyte to the paper’s editorial board and now for announcing the development of an AI-driven “bias meter” to appear on stories. Showcasing the bias of your own paper’s stories is certainly a choice that seems unlikely to endear coverage to anyone: those who agree with the bias probably won’t like being called out on it and those who don’t are unlikely to read content they disagree with just because it has a meter. But the story for PR pros is that billionaire owners aren’t content to sit in the shadows anymore. They’re attempting to broaden their reader bases and endear themselves to the Trump administration, which can often mean locking horns with left-leaning journalists. Understanding this dynamic and using it to your advantage is key – lest you find your company featured on a story marked as highly biased.
• Twitch is seeing an exodus of corporate advertisers over brand safety concerns related to Israel and Palestine. Advertisers including JPMorgan Chase, Dunkin Donuts and AT&T have left the popular video game streaming platform in recent weeks. There have been allegations of both antisemitic and Islamophobic comments coming from various streamers that appears to go beyond mere political discussion and into dehumanizing language against groups of people. In one case, panelists at TwitchCon discussed divisive topics while in front of a backdrop featuring the Chevron logo. “As an event sponsor, Chevron relied on conference organizers to exercise stringent oversight of presentations and content, and we are disappointed that such divisive rhetoric was allowed onstage,” the oil company said in a statement. Working with social media personalities is a vital part of the modern media ecosystem – but at the same time, it presents big risks as unpredictable personalities can go off script and cause embarrassment. Always be vetting.
• A federal judge has rejected a plea deal from Boeing over the fatal crashes of two of its 737 Max planes. While the exact reasons involve complex legal reasoning around court-appointed monitors and more, the PR implications of keeping these mass casualty events in the news for potentially years longer are bleak. We hardly need to describe the litany of PR disasters Boeing has faced over the last half-decade, and this latest legal setback has garnered them even more negative headlines at a time when they want to tell the story of rebuilding and change. The only advice is to keep moving forward and keep emphasizing the positive changes new CEO Kelly Ortberg is making while attempting to atone for the mistakes of the past.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Bluesky or LinkedIn.