UnitedHealth Group’s CEO said the US health system ‘is not perfect’ in his first public response to criticism from consumers.
There has been an outcry and an outpouring of condemnation regarding the US healthcare system following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare insurance company CEO Brian Thompson on December 4.
Thompson was walking to an insurance conference in New York City in the early hours of the morning when he was shot from behind outside of the Hilton Hotel.
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Following the shooting, video footage of the incident began to circulate on social media and police called on the public for more information about the identity of the alleged killer, with suspect Luigi Mangione having since been charged.
UnitedHealthcare is part of UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty reflected on the state of healthcare in an essay published in the New York Times on December 13.
Witty paid tribute to Thompson by calling him a ‘brilliant, kind man who was working to make healthcare better for everyone’.
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He added: “We also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats.”
After describing all the different types of people who work for UnitedHealth Group, the CEO said: “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. Our mission is to help make it work better.”
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The CEO also defended UnitedHealthcare, the company’s health insurance segment, however he acknowledged that it shares some of the responsibility for a lack of understanding about decisions regarding care.
“Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made,” Witty said in the essay. “Behind each decision lies a comprehensive and continually updated body of clinical evidence focused on achieving the best health outcomes and ensuring patient safety.”
Cops found suspect Mangione sitting at a table in the rear of a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, documents state.
In his possession Mangione, whose last known residency is Honolulu, Hawaii, had a gun as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police claim.
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On Tuesday (December 10), the computer science graduate - who is understood to have come from a wealthy family in a Maryland community, and was raised in Towson, outside of Baltimore - entered a plea of not guilty.
Gregory Robinson