Luigi Mangione, 26, an Ivy League graduate from an elite family, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Dec 4 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

During holiday gatherings, Mangione, healthcare and insurance were often mentioned in the same breath, especially among the young. Some even regard him as a "hero".

On social media, a Luigi Mangione look-alike contest was held recently. In various cities, young people gathered, dressed in dark clothes and mask — mirroring Mangione's attire when captured on security camera.

A widely circulated official photo of Mangione, shown in an orange jumpsuit flanked by armed officers, has drawn comparisons to Heinrich Hofmann's 1858 painting Arrest of Christ.

"If any bar association is hearing me, I do not condone violence," said a law student who chose Rosemary as her pseudo name for privacy. "But at the same time, I think it reflects a lot about how a lot of people are really, really tired of the status quo."

Mangione's glorification "just highlights how messed up our healthcare system is at the moment", she added.

"I think my generation is pretty empathetic to both mental health struggles as well as how much the physical can impact one's mind. Mangione struggled because of a back injury, he also had a bunch of different gripes with the health insurance system as a whole. And this is something that people have been complaining about for a while," Rosemary said.

NT, a business professional from Dallas who wanted to be identified only by her initials, said she was not at all surprised by the news of the shooting.

"In college, I did get my degree in healthcare management. I've always known about America's healthcare system and insurance companies — they screw people over all the time. So, who's surprised that someone doesn't like them, right?" said NT, who received a Mangione doll in orange suit as a Christmas gift. "They had it coming."

In her view, health insurance companies bring nothing good to the table. "They don't provide any good. They're literally just middlemen who exist to take money from hospitals and doctors. They just take everybody's money."

While Mangione is liked by many on the internet, CEO Thompson has received little sympathy. Many call him "the mass murderer" who denied people lifesaving medical treatment.

"Thompson died doing what he loved, not getting healthcare in time" — this comment received many likes.

Rosemary said she herself experienced "not-in-time" healthcare just recently. While traveling home to Houston for the holidays, she forgot her medication and requested an "emergency refill".

However, her insurance company denied the request, citing it as "an early refill and not medically necessary", leaving her to cover the $1,000 cost out of pocket.

As a result, Rosemary was forced to cut her holiday short and head back to school before the new year, but still missed four days of medication, suffering "the worst migraine of my life".

"My generation has discussed about not just what violence looks like when somebody comes up at you with a gun and shoots you, but more about economic violence. If you're dying at the hands of somebody else according to a company policy, that doesn't make it any less violent," she said.

Contact the writer at mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com