The Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s restaurant Luigi Mangione — the suspect charged in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killing — visited after the shooting has been flooded with negative reviews since his arrest. The low ratings poured in after it was reported that a restaurant employee told police Mangione had been spotted there.
Google has since removed the reviews because they violate the company’s policies, a spokesperson for Google told CBS News. Content that “is not based on a real experience and does not accurately represent the location or product in question” is prohibited by the search giant.
By late Tuesday morning, at least a couple negative reviews that did not appear to come from genuine customers lingered online.
“Saw rats scurrying about in the kitchen here!! Stay away!” read one review, which seemed to allude to a McDonald’s worker’s tip to police that ultimately led law enforcement to Mangione.
“More like Narc-donalds … I hope obesity and heart disease are in-network in PA. Deny, defend, depose, diarrhea @ McDonald’s …” read another, referencing in part the three words police say were inscribed on three separate shell casings found at the scene of the shooting.
Altoona police found a handwritten note in a backpack belonging to Mangione. After speaking to the Altoona Police Department, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the document seems to indicate Mangione “has some ill will toward corporate America.”
Thompson’s killing has unleashed a torrent of vitriol at the insurance industry, with UnitedHealthcare customers taking to social media to attack the company’s practices, and the industry as a whole.
“We’ve gotten to a point where health care is so inaccessible and unaffordable, people are justified in their frustrations,” Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, told CBS Mornings about the public’s voicing its frustrations.
In recent years, health insurance costs have risen even faster than the red-hot rate of inflation in the U.S., adding to the strain on household budgets, while many Americans express anger at their health claims being denied.
In 2024, the average health insurance premium for families carried a price tag of $25,572 per year, while single workers paid an average of $8,951, representing a 6% and 7% increase from the year earlier, data from health research firm KFF shows. Since 2000, the rise in health insurance premiums has outpaced inflation for all but a handful of years, the health policy research firm found.
About 81% of Americans last year said they were dissatisfied with the cost of health care in the U.S, a 16-year high, a recent Gallup polling found.
