Documentarian Michael Moore called people’s anger at the American health care system and for-profit insurance “1000% justified” following the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Last Friday, Moore penned a short essay for his Substack after being inundated with messages and interview requests following the revelation that Thompson’s suspected killer, Luigi Mangione, had referenced Moore in his manifesto. Per the leaked text, Mangione name-checked Moore as one of the people he believed had “illuminated the corruption and greed” of the health insurance industry, likely a nod to Moore’s 2007 film, Sicko — which Moore has now made available to watch for free on YouTube.
In his essay, Moore said the interview requests he received frequently asked him if he would “condemn murder” — a question he said he found odd considering his films, whether about gun violence in America or the War in Iraq, have always condemned murder. On the matter of heath care, Moore wrote, “If the purpose of ‘health care’ is to keep people alive, then what is the purpose of DENYING PEOPLE HEALTH CARE? Other than to kill them? I definitely condemn that kind of murder.”
He added: “After the killing of the CEO of United HealthCare, the largest of these billion dollar insurance companies, there was an immediate OUTPOURING of anger toward the health insurance industry. Some people have stepped forward to condemn this anger. I am not one of them. The anger is 1000% justified. It is long overdue for the media to cover it. It is not new. It has been boiling. And I’m not going to tamp it down or ask people to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger.”
Moore argued that this anger was “not about the killing of a CEO,” but “the mass death and misery — the physical pain, the mental abuse, the medical debt, the bankruptcies in the face of denied claims and denied care and bottomless deductibles on top of ballooning premiums — that this ‘health care’ industry has levied against the American people for decades.”
The director went on to rail against the mainstream response to Thompson’s killing and Mangione’s arrest, arguing that politicians and pundits were trying to deflect, ignore, or diminish this anger. He also repeatedly called for a total dismantling of the American health care system, and for the construction of a new one similar to what so many other countries have: “Universal, free, compassionate, and full of life.”
