UnitedHealth cheif laments deplorable condition of US health system, 'does not work as well as it should'

Days after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the leader of its parent company admitted that the US health system “does not work as well as it should.” In an essay published by the New York Times, UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, Andrew Witty, said that the slain executive cared about customers and was working towards making the system better.

Thompson was ambushed and fatally shot outside the Hilton Hotel where his company was holding its annual investors’ conference. The killing was seen as a violent expression of widespread anger in the insurance industry. In the article, Witty said that the company was still struggling to make sense of the killing.

He also mentioned that workers at the health insurance company are now facing vitriol and threats. The UnitedHealth Group’s head made it clear that he understands people’s frustration yet described Thompson as part of the solution rather than someone deserving scorn.

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Witty holds the company responsible

While recalling Thompson’s humble beginnings, Witty said that his company shares responsibility for the lack of understanding of coverage decisions. “His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. BT, as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother. He never forgot where he came from because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care,” Witty wrote.

“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it. No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades,” he added. However, he insisted that despite all the drawbacks, it was still unfair that the company’s workers had been barraged with threats even while grieving the loss of a colleague.

“No employees – be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes – should have to fear for their and their loved one’s safety,” the company executive averred. Witty’s remarks were published after a woman in Lakeland, Florida, was charged with threatening a worker at her own health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield.

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The confrontational phone call between the woman and the company worker took place on December 10. Police at that time said that she cited words found on shell casings at the scene of Thompson’s killing and said “You people are next” during the recorded call.

Meanwhile, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and is fighting attempts to extradite him to New York so he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing. San Francisco police provided Mangione’s name to the FBI on December 5, stating that the man was reported missing to them in November, the Associated Press reported. Mangione was eventually arrested on December 9. Thompson’s survivors include a wife and two sons aged 16 and 19.

With inputs from the Associated Press.