Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing entitled “Hacking America's Health Care: Assessing the Change Healthcare Cyber Attack and What's Next”, at the Dirksen Building in Washington, DC, on May 1, 2024 .
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty on Friday mourned the death of Brian Thompson, who led the company's insurance business, and acknowledged that the U.S. health care system is “flawed” and in need of reform.
“We know the health care system isn't working as well as it should, and we understand people's frustrations about that,” Witty wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. “No one would design a system like we have. And no one has. It's a patchwork that has been built up over decades.”
UnitedHealth Group's mission is to help make it work better, he said.
“We are willing to work with everyone, as we always have – healthcare providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments and others – to find ways to deliver high-quality care and reduce costs,” Witty added to it.
The New York Times piece marks Witty's first public comments since last week's fatal shooting of Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest private insurer in the US. UnitedHealth Group is the nation's largest healthcare conglomerate by revenue. Its market cap of nearly $475 billion has shrunk since Thompson's death on December 4.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in downtown Manhattan as the CEO headed to UnitedHealth Group's investor day. Investigators have said Mangione was a critic of the health care industry, a widely held view among Americans.
The killing has unleashed a wave of pent-up resentment and anger toward the insurance industry, which has become a popular villain blamed for rising health care costs and the difficulty of accessing care. From denied claims, rising premiums and surprise bills to an overall lack of transparency, patients have flooded social media with stories about their own negative experiences with insurance.
Still, the killing comes after a challenging year for insurers, who are under pressure to maintain profits. This year in particular, companies faced higher medical costs as seniors opted for surgeries they had postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Witty recognized UnitedHealth Group's role in healthcare challenges in the US
“Healthcare is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood,” Witty said, noting, “We share some of the responsibility for that.”
He gave no details on what exactly could be done to reform the industry. But Witty says the company, working with employers, governments and other payers, must improve the way insurers explain what is covered and how those decisions are made.
He also noted that behind certain claims decisions is “a comprehensive and continuously updated body of clinical evidence aimed at achieving the best health outcomes and ensuring patient safety.”
Witty said Thompson had done his best to help patients navigate the health care system.
