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By Mandy Taheri
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Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, mentioned filmmaker Michael Moore in his manifesto as an example of someone who has "illuminated the corruption and greed" of the United States health system.
Moore investigated the health care industry in his 2007 film Sicko.
In Mangione's manifesto, he wrote, "Many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain."
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Newsweek reached out to Moore for comment via email on Thursday.
What has Michael Moore said about the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting?
Three days before Mangione was charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York, Moore wrote on his Substack about the killing.
In a December 6 post, two days after Thompson's death, Moore spoke about both gun violence and the American health care system.
He wrote, "Each year nearly 50,000 Americans are killed by gun violence. And each year over 100,000 Americans die from infections they pick up when they visit or check into our nation's health care facilities. How is this possible in the 21st century in the wealthiest nation on Earth?"
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Moore cited a statistic from the medical journal The Lancet, writing, "13% of Americans have a family member or friend who have died in the last 5 years because they simply couldn't afford medical treatment."
A 2019 Gallup and West Health poll reported similar findings, with about 34 million people affected.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest single health carrier in the U.S. In 2023, it had the highest rates of claim denial compared to other plans by Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and others.
"While the gun deaths will make headlines if it's a mass shooting at a school or a church, or if it's the assassination of a multi-millionaire CEO in New York, the 186 who will die today due to a broken healthcare system, one that is run primarily by insurance men, we will not hear one word about that tonight, their names shall never be mentioned," Moore wrote.
He continued: "No other industrialized country on Earth so willingly and heartlessly lets a few large corporations literally decide who shall live and who shall die — a decision that is based solely on profit motive." He then shared a clip from Sicko.
He has not authored another Substack or any social media posts about the shooting since Mangione has been identified.
What is Moore's' Sicko' documentary about?
Sicko examines the American health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. It compares the U.S. health system to universal care systems in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba.
The nearly 2-hour long film explores the politics of universal health coverage proposals in the U.S. and connections to pharmaceutical companies.
The film has a 91 percent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and received various awards, including a nomination in 2008 for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
What does "deny," "depose," and "defend" mean?
Three bullet casings found by police at the scene of Thompson's killing had words related to the health insurance industry inscribed "deny," "defend," and "depose."
The words are believed to be related to law professor Jay Feinman's 2010 book Delay*, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It*. The book argues that some companies in the insurance industry are actively denying legitimate claims.
Just before midnight the day of the assassination, a new meme coin called "Deny. Defend. Depose." was launched. Meme coins are a form of cryptocurrency typically created as a joke or prank, in contrast to more serious online currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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