The chief executive of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company acknowledged in a New York Times op-ed on Friday that the “health system does not work as well as it should” while condemning the “vitriol” directed at the industry in the wake of the murder of CEO Brian Thompson.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty reacted on Friday to the deluge of social media posts celebrating the Dec. 4 killing of Thompson in Midtown Manhattan.
The alleged shooter, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and other felonies, wrote a manifesto blasting the health care system, although authorities say he was not insured by UnitedHealthcare.
In the op-ed titled “The Health Care System Is Flawed. Let’s Fix It.,” Witty said he understood people’s frustration but described Thompson as part of the solution.
Thompson never forgot growing up in his family’s farmhouse in Iowa and focused on improving the experiences of consumers.
“His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. B.T., as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother,” Witty wrote. “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 said his company shares some responsibility for lack of understanding of coverage decisions.
“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,” Witty wrote. “Our mission is to help make it work better.”
He said it was unfair that the company’s workers had been barraged with threats, even as they grieved 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 ones’ safety,” he wrote.
Witty wrote that Thompson was striving to make the “complicated” health care system better.
“While the health system is not perfect, every corner of it is filled with people who try to do their best for those they serve,” he wrote. “Brian was one of those people.”
He said Thompson “pushed us to build dedicated teams to help the sickest people navigate the health system.”
“It’s why he fought for preventive health and quality health outcomes rather than simply adding ever more tests and procedures. He believed decisions about healthcare should start with the individual and championed plans in which consumers could see costs and coverage options upfront, so they could decide what’s best for themselves and their families,” Witty explained.
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