Summary
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty criticized public outrage over the health insurance industry following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson.
In a leaked video to staff, Witty dismissed criticism as “misinformation” and urged employees not to engage with media.
Thompson’s murder outside a Manhattan hotel has intensified scrutiny of the industry’s practices, with bullet casings found at the scene bearing phrases linked to insurance claim denial tactics.
The killing has sparked debate on UnitedHealthcare’s history of denying claims, while the shooter remains at large.
Witty faces unrelated DOJ insider trading allegations.
Witty, clearly reading from a script and dressed casually, defended his industry against accusations it refuses people vital coverage saying “we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or unnecessary care.”
Doubling down on your lie ain’t gonna help you.
Unnecessary care
The doctor thinks its necessary. Claims handler and insurance company suddenly become medical professionals and give a second opinion of “its not necessary”.
Why even bother with the doctor? Just ask the insurance company instead.
Whats funny too - whenever the alternative is brought up (socialised healthcare), at least the conservative side of america starts seething over it, falling over themselves defending private insurance companies
Why even bother with the doctor? Just ask the insurance company instead.
100% this. If they know what’s best for us they should open a hospital.
Do the people making these refusals have medical degrees? Those people without medical degrees actually think they know better than a doctor?
“Necessary” is a really telling word there. Is it necessary that I have pain meds? No. It’s possible to go through my life in pain. It would fucking suck, but those pain meds aren’t strictly necessary. Just fuck anybody and any corporation who would want you to go through life in pain.
Same with teeth.
Sure, I can live without them but everything becomes harder and worse and there’s an awful period where you could probably die from the infections as many people used to.
But those are luxury bones covered by other, separate insurance, as though it is not related to my health.
100%. The majority of my health concerns at the moment are my teeth, and because dental is separate, I’m spending a lot more out of pocket because the maximum coverage is so much lower.
I mean those do exist, see Kaiser Permanente. Even they have a much lower denial rate than United.
I know! Kaiser is my favorite, but they have a very limited coverage area and a few years ago I moved outside of it.
But Obama and FEMA are running the death panels.
Just being Devil’s Advocate here: Medicare fraud is a thing - docs who prescribe, or claim to have performed, unnecessary treatments, which may be as much as $60B (out of $900B spending, so…7-ish%). Maybe not enough to justify UHC’s 32% denial rate. And nobody seems to source their $60B or $100B fraud estimates - I can only find case evidence for a few hundred million, and those are cases spanning years.
That’s not a reason to deny claims for cancer treatment. If fraud is their worry, have a fraud team to investigate, don’t cut off coverage when your life saving operation runs an hour past the allotted time.
Sounds like it would be easier to have a single government entity focused on fraud and Healthcare outcomes though.
The main arguement for private health insurance is that it will help better optimize how healthcare is distributed, but in a capatilistic society it seems unlikely we’d get anything other than means based optimization. However, Healthcare shouldn’t be optimized for financial status, but most likely should be optimized for optimal coverage.
unnecessary care
Unnecessary for the company bottom line, yeah
“There are very few people in the history of the US healthcare industry who had a bigger positive effect on American healthcare than Brian [Thompson].”
Lol you fucking shitting me? This guy’s whole speech is a lie.
Not so much a lie as speaking from a very twisted point of view. From his perspective, making more money is the only kind of positive change. As the CEO who oversaw the highest denial rate in the industry, Thompson’s leadership would of course be seen as positive by his fellow executives.
In a way it’s true. In death, he’s having a hand in changing the public perception of privatized healthcare in the US, and perhaps will help spark change altogether.
if you don’t like the reflection, don’t blame the mirror.
Oh I like this one.
There he goes again, issuing yet more denials, and denying new claims and whatnot. Thats what got them here in the first place, christ. Have they learned nothing, this is very unwitty of “Mr. Witty”
Also, can we very much continue and expand with prefacing the pos’ name with the pre-nomial “$millions” they are compensated to spout their bullshit? Reminds me of congressmen being required to wear decals of their sponsors like racecars or something
In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to fall back to things you are familiar with
I’m for one hoping they never catch The Adjuster.
ahaha that’s great
Is the OTHER CEO of your company not an indication that you should probably stop your bitching?
Get the bankers out of my doctor’s office, the only people who should have the authority to decide what care is necessary is the physician treating me and myself when signing informed consent forums.
How many CEOs does UnitedHealth have?
UnitedHealth Group (this guy) vs United HealthCare (subsidiary, the guy who was killed)
Arguably the group as a whole is worse because it also includes Optum among others.
He’s The CEO of the company that owns United Health Care. Notice he’s ceo of United Health Group.
It’s different groups, the guy who got a bunny was unitedhealthcare. This guy is UnitedHealth … 😅
“Let them eat cake.”
I understand the reference. But in this case my immediate thought was “yeah, urinal cake!”
I can’t wait to be next in line for Mr. Bones wild ride.
I wonder how much this shitbird spent on private security immediately after recording this.
Zero. He took care of that well before. That type take care of themselves well before even thinking of others, if they do.
That guy can smoke a turd in hell for all i care.
Someone wanna protect us against the pressure of rich assholes and unnecessary capitalism
Thoughts and prayers. Probably not the kind Mr. Fuckwitty would prefer.
“Industry”
Industries are things that produce a product, the insurance providers are just the middle men that jack up the price.
Their only concern is their fealty to the bottom line. We are only the sheep to be shorn for it. Sheep aren’t supposed to fight back.
The only way anything is going to happen is if the sheep do precisely that. Become ungovernable.
