{"id":3589,"date":"2025-07-08T15:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3589"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:15","slug":"finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Someone to Blame for U.S. Health Insurance Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

As Americans pay more and more for health insurance every year, with paperwork burdens and denials of doctor-recommended procedures, medications, and other medical services, their anger and frustration at the U.S. healthcare system continues to simmer.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Tim Pollock<\/a> of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville said that it\u2019s difficult to go after a big, faceless $500 billion corporation, so people blame their suffering on the industry\u2019s corporate leaders. Public discourse in the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson\u2019s killing in December 2024 is case in point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CEO is somebody that they can vent their anger on and becomes a target,\u201d Pollock. \u201cSo I wasn\u2019t surprised at the nature of the reaction to Thompson\u2019s killing and the apprehension of suspect Luigi Mangione.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that the health-insurance and benefits-administration CEOs are listening and paying attention to people\u2019s reactions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019ve been so insulated from the reality of what their companies have been doing and how it\u2019s affecting people, hopefully this wakes them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not sure, because it seems like a lot of what they\u2019re doing is beefing up security and taking down information about boards of directors and about senior executives from their websites, as opposed to understanding where this anger is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pollock suggested that senior executives in the health insurance industry should look themselves in the mirror and ask: Why are they infamous? Why are these negative emotional reactions to Thompson\u2019s killing and Mangione\u2019s arrest so widespread?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an unfortunate extreme outcome, but it illustrates how many people are feeling about the U.S. healthcare system,\u201d Pollock said. \u201cThere may be some CEOs who actually say, \u2018Oh, my God, we really need to change what we\u2019re doing,\u2019 but there are a lot who are going to rationalize it, and they\u2019re going to have their inner circles tell them, \u2018It\u2019s nothing that we\u2019re doing wrong\u2014it\u2019s a crazy person who just went nuts.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll try to downplay or rationalize away what happened, as opposed to open themselves up to thinking about the root cause of people\u2019s anger directed towards them and their role in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher As Americans pay more and more for health insurance every year, with paperwork burdens and denials of doctor-recommended procedures, medications, and other medical services, their anger and frustration at the U.S. healthcare system continues to simmer. Academy of Management Scholar Tim Pollock of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville said that it\u2019s difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,71,78,46],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c-suite","category-communicating","category-policy","category-well-being"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinding Someone to Blame for U.S. Health Insurance Woes - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Finding Someone to Blame for U.S. Health Insurance Woes\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:58:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/caller-yells-at-businessman.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"C-SUITE\",\"COMMUNICATING\",\"POLICY\",\"WELL-BEING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/finding-someone-to-blame-for-u-s-health-insurance-woes\\\/\",\"name\":\"Finding Someone to Blame for U.S. Health Insurance Woes - 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