Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
At 2 a.m. on December 10, a meme coin named LUIGI was listed on the popular coin selection platform Moonshot about 30 minutes after the opening of pupm.fun. Amid market speculation about whether it was a conspiracy or a big golden dog, its market value rose rapidly, breaking through nearly 80 million US dollars. Subsequently, the news that the largest insurance company in the United States was shot and killed by digital nomad Luigi Nicholas Mangione became popular. In this regard, another news hot meme coin attracted countless market attention, and more news about the incident behind the token involving sensitive factors such as US health insurance, social justice and illegal sanctions gradually surfaced, which made people sigh.
On the third day after the incident, let us review this tragedy of the commons in the US health insurance industry and understand the love-hate relationship between Meme coin and news from another perspective.
When a man named Luigi decided to commit murder: The whole story of the CEO shooting
December 4th, which is set as Constitution Day in China, is just an ordinary day in the United States.
Of course, for UnitedHealthcare, the largest insurance company in the United States and the second largest in the world in terms of sales, this day is not ordinary, because the annual investor conference of this American health insurance giant is about to begin.
At that time, Brian Thompson, the helmsman of this industry giant and the companys CEO, will share the companys impressive achievements this year with people from all walks of life. After all, in the 2024 Fortune 500 list, UnitedHealth Group, the parent company behind UnitedHealthcare, has an annual revenue of US$371.622 billion, ranking 8th in the world, even US$7.14 billion more than Berkshire Hathaway, owned by the well-known Buffett. The previous one is the global technology giant Apple; its market value once reached US$560 billion, covering nearly 50 million American citizens. He certainly has reason and qualifications to be proud of himself and his companys achievements.
Fortune Magazine ranked UnitedHealth Group No. 8
At 6:45, Brian Thompson was heading to the Hilton Hotel where the exchange meeting was held in Manhattan, New York, facing the slightly chilly weather. Because it was not far from his hotel, he chose to walk there and did not arrange for security personnel to protect him. Although he had received several death threats before, for him who had worked at UnitedHealth for 20 years, such threats were commonplace and he never took them seriously.
Just as he was walking on the sidewalk as usual, an accident happened - a masked man wearing a black hooded jacket and a gray backpack suddenly appeared behind him like a ghost, and fired several shots with a 9 mm silencer pistol in his hand, hitting his back and calf. Although the pistol jammed once, the man in black adjusted himself and walked towards Brian Thompson who had fallen down and fired another shot. Afterwards, the man ran through an alley and quickly fled the scene. Witnesses said he rode an electric bicycle into New York Central Park.
At 6:48, three minutes after the shooting, New York police arrived at the crime scene and found several bullet casings on the ground with the words Deny, Defend, Depose engraved on them (another saying is Delay, Deny, Depose). These three words starting with D just correspond to a set of unwritten industry rules when the U.S. insurance industry handles insurance incidents - delay: delay the claim settlement time; refuse: refuse the claim settlement; question: question the policyholder in an attempt to make him give up the lawsuit.
At 7:04, according to surveillance video, he took a taxi to the bus terminal and did not appear again in the bus stations video surveillance, and thus left New York.
At 7:12, less than 30 minutes after being rushed to the hospital, Brian Thompson was pronounced dead after failed rescue efforts. The helmsman of a multi-billion dollar business empire was thus reduced to a lonely soul under the gun.
As the news of the incident spread, American society was in an uproar.
Some people regard him as a blatant murderer. After all, he calmly killed people in broad daylight and escaped, which makes it hard to imagine what a cruel and cold-blooded bloodthirsty demon he is. Others believe that there may be other hidden reasons for his shooting of the CEO of the largest insurance company in the United States. Such a meticulous planning of the crime and a clear target object cannot be ruled out as a personal vendetta or other possibilities. Others feel that this incident is just a recurrence of the gun murder incident that has long been communal in American society, except that this time the victim is no longer a civilian as before, but the CEO of a giant company.
As time went on, more information was gradually revealed:
On December 5, police investigations found that the gunman had stayed at the HI New York City Hostel on Manhattans Upper West Side and had a brief conversation with a female staff member when checking in at the front desk. To be precise, they were flirting, and then he (the gunman) took off (a mask or other covering) and smiled brightly. CBS News quoted a person associated with the New York police as saying.
The gunman talks to the front desk
On December 9, at a McDonalds at 407 Plank Road East in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 450 kilometers from New York, a McDonalds employee reported to the police that he had found a man wearing a medical mask and a beanie and carrying a gun suspected of being the shooter in the New York street shooting case after being reminded by a customer. When the police rushed over, they found that his facial features were consistent with the murderer, and confirmed him as the suspect in the 12.4 CEO shooting incident during the interrogation, and subsequently arrested him.
It is reported that the man is named Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26 years old, and he holds a gun believed to be used to shoot Brian Thompson on the 4th (later confirmed to be 3D printed, which also proves the reason for the previous jam). The police also found a three-page handwritten document in his belongings, in which Luigi wrote: To the FBI, I will make it short because I do respect what you have done for the country. In order to save you a long investigation, I clearly state that I have not cooperated with anyone. In addition, he wrote in this handwritten document: I apologize for any disputes or trauma caused, but this must be done. Frankly speaking, these parasites deserve it.
3D printed “murder weapon”
With the arrest of Luigi, information about his identity and motive for the crime gradually came to light. Only then did people realize that the incident was far from being summarized as an ordinary shooting incident.
When justice and morality collide head-on: The chronic disease of the US health insurance industry VS patients claims
The incident further fermented as Luigi Nicholas Mangiones identity information became increasingly clear, and the spearhead was directed at the current slightly deformed medical insurance system in the United States.
According to netizens, Luigi Nicholas Mangione is an Italian-American who was born in Maryland, USA. He graduated from Gilman School, a famous private high school in Baltimore (with an annual tuition of up to $37,000) in 2016 and spoke as a representative of outstanding graduates. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the 8 Ivy League schools in the United States in May 2020. He previously studied computer science and minored in mathematics, and obtained a bachelors and masters degree in engineering. He served as the chief counselor of the preparatory research program at Stanford University, and the video game development club he founded in college was also selected into the Computer Honor Society. He himself has interned at the famous 3A masterpiece Civilization series game company, and has also worked as a data engineer at TrueCar, a California car shopping website. In 2023, he went to Hawaii to start his digital nomad life.
Later, someone found his Goodreads book list, and The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferries, a well-known investor and digital nomad advocate, was prominently listed. In addition, he also wrote a long review of On Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski, an extremist, American mathematician, and notorious University Unabomber in January this year. He mentioned: (We) can easily quickly and thoughtlessly regard this as the manifesto of a madman. But it is impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society are... When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary for survival... These companies dont care about you, your children or your grandchildren... Violence will never solve anything This is a statement made by cowards and predators. It is worth mentioning that after his arrest, the US police quickly blocked and hid all of Luigis social media (but his X platform account @PepMangione was spared because it had not posted for a long time), and his Goodreads book reviews were no exception.
Goodreads long review by Luigi
In addition to his personal past, his family background has also been put in the spotlight. People have discovered that Luigis family is a well-known local family - his grandparents are real estate developers, the family owns many properties in Maryland, and operates several elderly rehabilitation centers and two country clubs; his cousin Nino Mangione is a Republican member of the Maryland House of Representatives and also serves as the co-chairman of the Trump campaign team in Baltimore County. It is worth mentioning that after Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested, Nino Mangione posted on social media: Our whole family is shocked and saddened by Luigis arrest. We pray for Brian Thompsons family and ask everyone to pray for everyone involved.
A few weeks before the shooting, Luigi had lost contact with his family. According to his friends, Mangione had back surgery a few months ago, and the surgery was not effective. The back pain caused great trouble to his daily life. Netizens speculated that he suffered from spondylolisthesis based on his Goodreads bookshelf information.
According to information leaked to the New York Times by law enforcement officials and other information, the handwritten statement Mangione carried with him when he was arrested may be as follows:
To the FBI, Ill be brief because I respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, Ill just say straight out that I didnt work with anyone. It was pretty simple: some basic social engineering, some basic CAD, and a lot of patience.
If you guys find the spiral notebook, there are some scattered notes and to-dos in there that give you a rough idea of whats going on. I keep my electronics pretty well protected because I work in engineering, so theres probably not much information there.
I am deeply sorry for any conflict or trauma caused, but it must be done. Frankly, these parasites have it all to themselves. Just a reminder: America has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank about 42nd in life expectancy. UnitedHealth is the [xxx]th largest company in the U.S. by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, and Walmart. It keeps getting bigger, but what about our life expectancy? No, the reality is, these [xxx] have become too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for massive profits because the American public lets them get away with it.
Obviously, the problem is much more complex, but I don’t have the space to go into it, and frankly, I’m not the most qualified person to write about it in detail. But many people have exposed this corruption and greed years ago (Rosenthal, Moore), and the problem persists. This is not a problem of perception, but clearly a power play. Obviously, I am the first person to confront it in such a straightforward way.”
Considering his previous elite resume, it is hard not to feel sympathy for this tragic hero in this speech. The opposite of this sympathy is the cruel and ruthless side of the current US health insurance system.
It is understood that the proportion of medical and health expenses in GDP in the United States has always been significantly higher than that of other countries: according to a number of data summaries, the average hospitalization cost in the United States is as high as US$22,500; a common appendectomy surgery in China costs about US$30,000 in the United States, and complex surgeries can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Without medical insurance, ordinary people simply cannot afford it; and medical insurance in the United States is also difficult for people to accept easily.
Earlier, a Gallup poll found that in 2023, about 81% of Americans expressed dissatisfaction with the cost of health insurance in the United States, the highest level in 16 years; KFF research showed that in 2024, the average health insurance cost for American families was US$25,572, while the average health insurance cost for unmarried adult citizens was US$8,951, an increase of 6% and 7% respectively from the previous year; since 2000, except for a few years, the increase in health insurance premiums has exceeded inflation.
In addition, a 2023 survey by the American Medical Association found that one-third of doctors reported that the approval first, then treatment prior authorization model promoted by US health insurance companies caused many patients to develop serious lesions, 94% of patients had necessary treatments delayed, 80% of patients chose to give up treatment, and 9% of patients became disabled or even died. Not to mention, health insurance companies will use various reasons, various procedures and claims processes as obstacles to reduce claims costs or even refuse insurance. It is no wonder that Jay M. Feinman, a professor at Rutgers University in the United States, published a book in 2010 called Delay, Denial, Defense: Why Insurance Companies Dont Pay Claims and What You Can Do?, which was previously very popular.
As for UnitedHealthcare, which has 140,000 employees, its rejection rate may be as high as 32%, according to the financial website Value Pengui. Almost one in three customers who request a claim are rejected, which is twice the industry average (16%). The reason behind this is naturally inseparable from Brian Thompson, who was promoted to CEO in 2021.
It is understood that since 2021, the refusal rate of UnitedHealthcare has been increasing: in 2020, the figure was 10.9%; in 2022, it doubled to 22.7%. In contrast, the companys profits have risen: in 2021, the profit was 12 billion US dollars; in 2023, this figure increased to 16 billion US dollars. You know, this is the companys revenue performance during the new crown period. At the same time, from 2021 to 2023, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, received an annual salary of US$10.2 million, US$9.8 million, and US$9.6 million respectively.
Under Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare also prepared a plan in 2021 to refuse to pay for emergency room visits at what it considered non-critical hospitals, but it was shelved due to too much protest. At a 2023 investor conference, it also outlined that the company would prefer to pay claims based on valuable care, that is, the post-hospitalization care phase rather than the treatment phase.
In fact, according to a report from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in October this year, UnitedHealthcare has been using AI tools and an algorithm called nH Predict to screen insurance policies, among which post-acute care is the most frequently denied item, and the acute care denial rate is about three times the overall denial rate. At the end of last year, the families of two deceased customers sued UnitedHealthcare, claiming that it deliberately used a flawed algorithm to refuse to provide elderly patients with extended care that doctors deemed necessary, and the algorithm had an error rate of up to 90%. A previous investigation published by ProPublica also found that UnitedHealthcare used algorithms to effectively cut or limit some treatment costs, endangering the mental health insurance of many Americans. In California, Massachusetts and New York, this practice of insurance companies is considered illegal.
You know, American insurance companies have always been regarded as difficult to defeat money-making beasts. Due to their numerous insurance regulations and strong legal power, most people can only choose to accept reality after being denied claims. Only 0.1% of people will appeal against the denial of claims.
When the cold and cruel social reality meets the seemingly passionate justice sanctions, the Robin Hood-style heroic plot is undoubtedly more touching. This is why many people, including some American media, focus on UnitedHealthcare and the American health insurance system rather than the Luigi himself shot the CEO. Social media platforms including X, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. have been filled with slogans such as FreeLuigi and Free the man in recent days. Some people even fabricated alibi for him on news website message boards and social media. Whats more, the McDonalds employee who called the police to arrest Luigi was also besieged by netizens. People gave it a one-star bad review on the map software.
This McDonalds received a one-star bad review because of public outrage
Of course, not everyone will be carried away by the passionate idea of eliminating harm for the people.
On December 10, Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro publicly condemned Luigi Nicholas Mangione: In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Listen to me, he is not a hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonalds.
In addition, some netizens took screenshots showing that Musk had expressed his opinion on the matter on December 7: This is disgusting. Everyone is making that guy into some kind of folk hero. Insurance companies, like any company, have a responsibility to maximize profits for the needs of shareholders, no matter how ruthless the means. The radical left who dont buy this needs to grow up and mature. However, the tweet has not been found under the content of Musks account, and it is suspected to have been deleted or was a spoof of a photoshopped picture.
Network screenshots
There were also different online news later, saying that Luigi Nicholas Mangione may have committed this because of his mothers chronic back pain claim or his grandparents medical insurance claim. The specific situation still depends on further investigation by the US police. On December 10, the New York police charged him with second-degree murder related to the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO, as well as five counts including forgery of documents, false identity, and illegal possession of firearms. However, since different states in the United States have different laws and judicial systems, it may take days or weeks to transfer fugitives between states.
When cryptocurrency becomes a news “fire zone”, can speculation keep the hot topic alive?
According to GMGN data , as of the time of writing, the token LUIGI of the same name as the protagonist of this incident is currently priced at US$0.015, with a market value of approximately US$15 million, which is about 80% lower than the peak market value of US$78 million.
LUIGI Token Information
Just like the crypto prediction market Polymarket that successfully predicted Trumps victory this year, Meme coins have become a social hot spot weathervane in a sense . The squirrel and the related Meme coin PUNT that were harmed before were even highly praised by Musk, saying that a squirrel and a Meme coin saved America. Although it is somewhat exaggerated, it is still an affirmation of the social news value of Meme coins. Including the Ethereum Meme coin MOODENG, which was created by borrowing the Tiktok animal Internet celebrity image of the hippopotamus, and the subsequent use of token donations to support charity is also one of the rare Mass Adoption test examples in the cryptocurrency industry.
In addition, the popularity of news hotspots is also directly reflected in the market performance of a number of cryptocurrencies, including Meme Coin. However, for many projects, pure speculation can only be a one-wave zero-sum game. Whether it can inject new vitality into news hotspots often depends on the lasting influence of a cryptocurrency project narrative.
LUIGI is just the intersection of Meme coin and news hot spots. More projects will emerge in the future. Can Meme coin at that time promote similar events to have a different direction and outcome? Only time can tell us the answer.
References:
Shooting! UnitedHealthcare CEO killed in attack at annual investor meeting
Catch the man who shot the CEO | Prism
The rejection rate is as high as 32%! Behind the shooting of the CEO of an insurance giant
