The leader of the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, whose chief executive was shot and killed outside a New York City hotel on December 4, acknowledged that America’s patchwork health care system is “not working as well as it should.”
But in a guest essay published by the New York Times, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Whitty said slain Brian Thompson cared about customers and made the system better. He claimed that he was working hard to
Mr. Thompson was ambushed and shot dead outside a hotel where his company was holding its annual investor conference. The killing is seen as a violent expression of widespread anger against the insurance industry.
Mr Whitty said people at the company were struggling to make sense of not only the killing, but also the abuse and threats directed at colleagues. He stressed that he understands people’s frustrations, but said Thompson is not someone worthy of contempt and is part of the solution.
Thompson wrote that he never forgot growing up on his family’s farm in Iowa and focused on improving the consumer experience.
“His father spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. The BT we know worked on farms and fished in gravel pits with his brothers as a child. He never forgot where he came from, because his first consideration when finding ways to improve care was the needs of people living in places like Jewell, Iowa. Whitty writes.
Mr Whitty said his company bears some responsibility for the lack of understanding of coverage decisions.
“We know that our health care system isn’t working as well as we should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it. No one would design a system like us. And No one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades,” Witty wrote. “Our mission is to help it work better.”
Nevertheless, he said it was unfair that the company’s employees were subjected to a barrage of threats even as they grieved the death of a colleague.
“Whether it’s an employee answering a customer’s phone call or a nurse visiting a patient in their home, employees should never have to worry about their safety or the safety of their loved ones,” he wrote.
Whitty’s comments came after a Lakeland, Florida, woman was charged on Dec. 10 with threatening an employee of her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, during a phone call. “You guys are next,” she said during the recorded call, citing the words left on the shell casing at the murder scene, police said.
Police said Thompson’s attacker approached him from behind, shot him and fled on his bicycle.
The suspect, Luigi Mangione, was later arrested in Pennsylvania and is fighting extradition to New York to face murder charges in Thompson’s death.
The day after the murder, San Francisco police provided the FBI with valuable information regarding the suspect’s identity. The suspect resembled Luigi Mangione, who was reported missing in November, the Associated Press reported.
San Francisco police provided Mangione’s name to the FBI on Dec. 5, The Associated Press reported, citing a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and agreed to remain anonymous. It was reported that.
That was the day the New York Police Department released surveillance images showing the face of a suspected gunman who checked into a Manhattan hostel. Mr. Mangione was arrested on December 9th.
Mr. Thompson is survived by his wife and two sons, ages 16 and 19.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
