UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty, head of the parent company for UnitedHealthcare, said he is “struggling to make sense” of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down in New York City last week.
In a guest essay in The New York Times on Friday, Witty called the killing an “unconscionable act.” At the same time, the executive detailed the “vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats” following the shooting, while further acknowledging that America’s health care system needs fixing.
“The people of UnitedHealth Group are nurses, doctors, patient and client advocates, technologists and more,” Witty wrote. “They all come to work each day to provide critical health services for millions of Americans in need.”
Thompson’s killing led to a number of top health insurance companies removing public information about their executives. Some people used the murder as an opportunity to discuss the decisions made by major insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, while others have vocally celebrated the alleged shooter, Luigi Mangione.
Witty’s statement also notably came a day after a woman in Florida was charged with making threats to a BlueCross BlueShield health insurance official that referenced the “Delay, Deny, Depose” phrases purportedly found on shell casings at the scene of the Dec. 4 crime outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel.
Last week, The Times reported a Senate committee concluded earlier this year that UnitedHealthcare, as well as Humana and CVS, “were intentionally denying” nursing home claims “to increase profits.” UnitedHealthcare covers more than 50 million people.
UnitedHealth’s stock price has taken a big hit following the shooting, with the company’s market cap dropping $78 billion between Dec. 4 — the date of the shooting — and midday Friday.
However, Witty admitted in his NYT piece that he understands some of the frustration Americans have with the health care system.
“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,” he said. “We are willing to partner with anyone, as we always have — health care providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments and others — to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs.”
The executive continued, “Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that.”
Thompson, Witty noted, was supposedly one of the people working to make the system better: He was raised on a farm in Iowa by blue collar parents and “never forgot where he came from … The ideas he advocated were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human. That’s Brian’s legacy.”
Thompson, 50, had two sons with his wife Paulette. His suspected killer Mangione was arrested and charged with second degree murder, forgery and three related gun crimes on Monday in Pennsylvania. He has been denied bail.
