Last week, an individual gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Bryan Thompson in the streets of Manhattan. The gunman wrote “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on the bullets he shot, suggesting that this killing was motivated by a dislike of UnitedHealthcare’s business practices, which are also the business practices of the private health insurance industry as a whole.

At the same time as that was going on, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, a lobbyist organization, criticized Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) for declaring that it would curtail reimbursements for anesthesia care that goes beyond a certain level. This criticism generated a backlash that resulted in BCBS backing down from the policy.

The combination of these two events has jolted the US health care system back into the discourse in a way not seen since 2020, including many tweets and articles from prominent pundits like Matt Yglesias, Dylan Matthews, Noah Smith, and Eric Levitz. The quick consensus among these pundits is that dislike of the private insurers is overblown and that the main problem lies with providers and their overcharging ways. This conclusion relies upon several factual misunderstandings and very questionable analysis that I aim to correct below.