HEALTH

Common Dreams -  In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in early December, some political observers were taken aback by the public response to the event, which included morbid humor and expressions of "Schadenfreude," in the words of one woman who had battled an insurance company to secure treatment for her mother's cancer.

But according to a new poll released by NORC at the University of Chicago Friday night, the belief that the for-profit health insurance industry's business practices were largely to blame for the apparent targeted killing of Thompson is far from a fringe viewpoint. Sixty-nine percent of respondents placed a "great deal or moderate amount" of blame on healthcare coverage denials by insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, for Thompson's killing. Sixty-seven percent said exorbitant profits made by health insurers were to blame.