The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and subsequent arrest of suspect Luigi Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania has sparked intense debates about the widely criticized practices of health insurance companies in the United States.

Some social media users have expressed their frustrations by praising the shooter as a folk hero and offered to crowdfund his defense. But many other critics of United Healthcare have stressed that while vigilante justice and premeditated murder are absolutely wrong, practices that cause needless suffering and leave Americans bankrupt desperately need to change.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), for example, have vehemently condemned Thompson’s murder but attacked the practices of United and other health insurance companies as a cruel abomination.

On Wednesday, December 11, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a report showing that U.S. residents spend a lot more time suffering from diseases than residents of other countries.

The Guardian’s Maya Young, reporting on the AMA’s findings, notes that “Americans live with diseases […]