The defense often given is that Luigi Mangione was defending others. They define the practices of the bloated insurance companies as murder, therefore justifying the action.

In contrast, Daniel Penny was not justified because institutional racism (or classism, since this case is unfortunately murky for them) places Jordan Neely as a victim in this position.

Of course, my take is that the real culprits are FDR and Reagan.

FDR implemented policies in WWII to freeze wages. This is what shoe-horned benefits packages (including health insurance) into the workforce in order for companies to compete for labor. Now that virtually all full time jobs contribute to these institutions, it is for all intents and purposes a subsidy for the insurance companies, which made them bloated and powerful. But of course, everyone blames Capitalism for some reason...

Reagan, of course, was instrumental in the dissolution of mental institutions, which is part of why the mentally ill homeless are in the position they are in.