It\u2019s no secret that the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a>\u2014allegedly by 26-year-old Luigi Mangione<\/strong>\u2014unleashed a tide of rage<\/a> against the deeply problematic US health care<\/a> system. But according to a new poll, frustration with the industry is so serious that many Americans believe that Mangione wasn\u2019t solely responsible for Thompson\u2019s death, and that the insurance industry played a significant role.<\/p>\n To be clear, we\u2019re not talking here about social media conspiracies about the shooting, such as those linking<\/a> Luigi Mangione\u2019s Pokemon of choice (Breloom, of course) with insurance claim denial codes. Pollsters at the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago<\/a> interviewed 1,001 adults between December 12-16, asking them first about their familiarity with the case. Of those, 39 percent said they had heard \u201ca lot,\u201d while an improbable 9 percent said they\u2019d heard nothing at all.<\/p>\n Of those, about 8 in 10 said that they believed that Mangione had either \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201ca moderate amount\u201d culpability in Thompson\u2019s death, but 7 in 10 also believe that insurance company coverage denials, such as UnitedHealthcare\u2019s AI-generated rejections<\/a>\u2014bear \u201ca moderate amount\u201d of responsibility for the homicide. Insurance company profits, such as UnitedHealth\u2019s $371.6 billion in 2023<\/a>, were also cited by respondents as responsible for the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n