UnitedHealth Group leader breaks silence on CEO murder, says health care system is flawed

The NYT op-ed is a fascinating read. Very much in the style US oligarchs. Pompous, but still trying to be folksy. Dishonest, but with an attempt to enable plausible deniability.

a brilliant, kind man who was working to make health care better for everyone.

If that was Thompson's goal, he wouldn't be working for a US health insurance company.

We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization.

This is clearly false. This a for profit corporation.

I wonder what the goal of this piece is?

they will never admit the truth; for-profit health insurance should not exist.

"We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization," he wrote.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

PR working overtime here. You can't serve shit soup and tell us you understand it's flawed and it has potato in it. We're not going to eat it. Universal healthcare for all please.

This is so much bullshit:

Witty added that Thompson was "never content with the status quo" and praised the CEO for advocating for ideas that "were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human."

Yeah, fucking sure. Here's what happened under his watch:

• Emergency Room Visit Denials: In 2021, the company planned to deny insurance payments for non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms, a move criticized by the American Hospital Association for potentially deterring patients from seeking necessary emergency care.
• Automated Claim Denials: The company began utilizing artificial intelligence to automate claim denials, raising concerns about the fairness and accuracy of such automated processes in evaluating individual patient claims.
• Insider Trading Allegations: Thompson faced allegations of insider trading, with reports indicating he sold a significant portion of his shares shortly before a Department of Justice antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group became public, leading to a drop in the company's stock price.

This is just lip service by the new boss. They could drop their rates, have more transparent claims process or any one of a hundred moves that THEY could initiate and would not require new legislation. Guess what, since that gets in the way of profit, they won't bother. People are already getting bored of this news cycle. In another week everyone will be talking about something else and UHC will still be raking in profits taken from the wallets of cancer patients.

Actions speak louder than words and I don't see any actions here!

Lots of lies in here, but some truth:

Witty said that Thompson was among the people working in the health care industry who "try to do their best for those they serve." 

We believe that. The problem is who he served. It wasn't his policy holders, that's for sure.

Witty said that while UHC is willing to "partner with anyone" who could help the system work better, "clearly, we are not there yet."

"We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization," he wrote.

I would love for him to explain to me why they NEED to deny 1/3 of their claims to keep their business afloat and how they are using their $23.1 billion profit to benefit the policy holders rather than the share holders. That would be a real article, a real plea to the populace. This is just an article full of empty words that mean nothing, but it does show us how scared you execs are, which is nice.

Oh, and I liked this part (emphasis mine):

Witty added that Thompson was "never content with the status quo" and praised the CEO for advocating for ideas that "were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human."

Yea, like the Ai denial system? I bet that really gave it the human touch. I mean, I really can’t believe he said that part.

"No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones' safety," Witty wrote.

There’s something we can all agree on. Executive fear though…

"It's not us and the millions of dollars in lobbyists we spend to make sure the health care system is the way it is, it's the health care system that's flawed." The United Healthcare CEO was being investigated. The way they've shifted the narrative to say "Hey, we were fighting for you all along, we are the good guys!" is absurd but predictable. Though it took hurting them where it mattered to them - tanking their share price - for them to do it.

"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," Witty wrote. "And no one did. It's a patchwork built over decades."

So it's nobody's fault. And nobody can fix it I guess. Oh well, guess we just take it then. Good to know nobody is responsible for a despicable system that kills when it should heal.

That's a lot of words for "please don't kill me next."

Actions speak louder than words.