When the Federal government added to Mangione’s charges, it showed the strong link between predatory corporations and government.
Within days after the murder of Brian Thompson, a senior executive at the UnitedHealth Care insurance company on a Manhattan Street, the company announced that it was reviewing its customer rejection policies.
Meanwhile, another healthcare industry executive, Dr. Sanchin Jain, the CEO and president of Scan Group & Health Plan, said that the industry was at “an inflection point” after the murder of the UnitedHealth Care exec.
Dr. Jain criticized the healthcare industry for “normalizing practices that do not serve people.” During an MSNBC interview, he also said that the current US healthcare design was “a Frankenstein system” that was difficult to navigate.
In the same interview, a slide showed that UnitedHealthcare had the highest rate of denials among about a half dozen competing healthcare insurance companies. See the chart below.
These public statements were made days after the shooting of Thompson. This is a surprisingly fast reaction from an industry that has resisted reform from Congress for years. However, the shooting accelerated public disclosure and reflection from a sector that has cultivated a reputation for being immune to criticism and reform.
Meanwhile, Luigi Mangione, the accused shooter, is being charged with both state and Federal crimes. Why would the US Justice Department charge Mangione with a terrorism charge in addition to the murder charges filed by the Manhattan DA?
These double charges are a show of strength against Mangione by the corporate state. The Manhattan DA and the US Justice Department moved very quickly to file these charges, but this is the same Justice Department that waited 21 months to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Donald Trump for his action in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Why would Merrick Garland have jumped into the prosecution of Mangione so quickly when he waited over 16 months to start the investigation against Trump? Why are Federal charges needed in this case since 117 people are shot every day in the US, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence? What pushed Garland to act against Mangione since he was asleep when it came to prosecuting Trump for planning an insurrection against the whole nation?
Garland can be considered the worst Attorney General in US history, so his motives in charging Mangione with terrorism could be regarded as grandstanding or else as a signal to the corporate class. The Justice Department needs to show that it will go out of its way to protect corporate CEOs who take advantage of ordinary people.
In any case, the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO has already prompted private and public corporate re-evaluations, some of which may lead to reform. These reforms would never have happened so quickly if Congress had been involved. 
The public has also embraced Mangione as a folk here, a Robin Hood of 2024, when pointing out the predatory nature of healthcare companies. This popularity alarms the corporate powers.
As for Garland’s decision to file terrorism charges against Mangione, that looks like pure grandstanding and a salute to corporate America from the worst AG in US history.
