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.
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.
The fact that this is an internal video means at least one of your employees don’t think you’ve learned the lesson you need to learn from this mr witty.
This is super tone deaf. If I were an executive, I’d be pretending I don’t exist.
Ikr, people in this position are expected to be malicious, they’re also generally expected to be the smart kind of sociopath.
This guy clearly has no idea of the situation he finds himself in
Has anyone checked on him? He sounds suicidal.
That guy can smoke a turd in hell for all i care.
