Health & Social Security: A Worldwide Issue

U.S. prosecutors are calling for the death penalty of Luigi Mangione, 26, on the grounds of “premeditated assassination”. Mangione is accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on December 4. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press release on Tuesday: “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.” The case has divided opinions, with some stating Mangione is a perpetrator of vigilantism, while others have voiced their support for him online, decrying an unequal health system. 

Access to healthcare as well as other forms of social security (or lack thereof) is a pressing issue for many people both in the United States and abroad. Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey shows that in several countries, it is the most widely agreed-on key issue at home. This is the case in Finland and China, while it is the third highest ranking issue in Canada and the United Kingdom. 

In Finland, a high 61 percent of respondents said that health and social security are a major issue there right now. In Brazil, despite the issue placing in 10th rank out of a list of 18 options, 53 percent of respondents said they considered it a major problem - higher than in many of the other countries polled. This combination, of a low rank, but fairly high response rate, indicates that Brazilians identified multiple major issues at the time of the survey. Of the 25 countries surveyed, an average of 43 percent of respondents said that health and social security was one of the most pressing issues in their country right now.