Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2024, 01:54 PM - Edit history (2)
JZ
Utah 2m ago
Andrew, you're in charge of the system you need to fix. Don't try to write this as one of the people who can't influence things. According to this paper, United Health denies approximately 33% of it's claims yearly. I assume that's in order to enhance profitability. If you want to fix the problem then look in the mirror.
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Harry
NE 3m ago
Meanwhile here's what UnitedHealth, lead by this guy, is doing:
"UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism"
(From ProPublica)
https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealthcare-insurance-autism-denials-applied-behavior-analysis-medicaid
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Doug MacGregor
Alberta 4m ago
Such platitudes Mr. Witty, such genuine concern now that your under the microscope. Such a well phrased deflection was needed certainly, to buy time to do nothing but delay, deny and wait till this blows over. You hope. Do I expect more than words of platitude at this particular moment? Does anyone?
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Joe B.l
Center City 6m ago
Bro, we just need to get you and your companies out of the business of denying health care for $$$$. Biggest problem solved.
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Rob
East Coast 7m ago
From Wiki:
"In 2023, Witty's total compensation from UnitedHealth Group was $23.5 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 352-to-1."
Nothing more to be said...
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Vermonter
vermont 15m ago
Why are we seeing this hollow apology by another CEO and not Luigi Mangione’s full manifesto? Or first-hand accounts of some of the millions of people preyed upon by this country’s vampiric healthcare system? Once again, the coverage of this story is skewed in favor of the ruling class’s perspective. But we aren’t buying it this time.
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sambir1
toronto 15m ago
I find using the life and tragic death of Brian Thompson as a way to defend United Healthcare disgusting. Mr. Witty should have dealt with his company's record and profit motives more directly. He admits no one would have designed the patchwork American health system but does not say how his company exploits it for increased profits
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Mike Smith
NYC 15m ago
I had to laugh out loud at this CEO’s statement that no employee should have to live in fear for their safety. I guess its ok though for their clients to live in fear of being routinely denied lifesaving healthcare. The guy is tone deaf.
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Dog
Earth 17m ago
Nice PR stunt. Not going to believe change is happening until the claim rejection stats start to go down.
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Leesburg & Down
Leesburg, VA 17m ago
UnitedHealthcare denies 32% of claims while the industry average is 16%. This is borderline criminal.
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Jason
Iowa 17m ago
Mr. Witty clearly has never struggled with the pain of being denied critical care. UHC makes its money off the suffering of tens of thousands of Americans, and NOW wants to say that something needs to be done?
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Kate
Bethlehem 17m ago
Something is very rage inducing in Mr. Witty's article, not so much about Brian Thompson but about the health insurance business. They don't offer health. The don't deliver health care. They don't prescribe or fill prescriptions. Like other parasitical industries they focus on their own profits and their shareholders. They elevate the worth of the CEO such that when he's assassinated, part of the world grieves while the other rage against machine that provoked the killing in the first place.
Where's the outpouring of grief for all the pain and suffering caused by their decisions?
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Jennifer Hoult, J.D.
New York City 17m ago
United Health Group's business model relies on systemic criminal fraud. They collect premiums on contracts people buy to obtain guaranteed medical care, and then systemically deny the care the insured parties paid for.
The executives of this organized crime organization should be held personally accountable both civilly and criminally. Like the Sackler family's opiod grifting, these individuals are deliberately killing and injuring millions of Americans.
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Tony
Chicago 17m ago
Dear Mr. Wtty, If you truly would like to foster transparency in the decision-making process at UHC, you could start at UHC's Optum by providing transparency within its drug formulary. For an example of what I'm referring to, consider Mark Cuban's CostPlusDrugs.
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DonnaB
Seattle 21m ago
Mr. Witty is trying to salvage something here. Any doctor I know (myself included) loathes UHC. For good reasons.
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Randy
Houston 21m ago
This is utterly disingenuous, self-serving nonsense. The only way to fix this system is the complete elimination of private health insurance. The health insurance industry adds zero value; its sole purpose is to skim rents out of healthcare spending. It does so by imposing itself as a middleman between patients and providers, impeding access to care and driving up costs in the process.
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Al
Florida 34m ago
“We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone. That is the purpose of our organization.” -No. The purpose of your organization is to make money. If you could just be honest about that maybe I would take you seriously.
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Magwep
New York 34m ago
While it’s lovely that Sir Andrew Witty, a Brit (nationalized healthcare!) and former GSK CEO, now earning $23m as UHC’s CEO, wrote a defense of UHC’s role in the broken American healthcare system disguised as a tribute to his late colleague, Brian Thompson, it reads like a PR narrative crafted by a top team.
With no accountability or meaningful solutions, relying instead on corporate empathy statements, the team attempted to humanize UHC while sidestepping systemic failures. The familiar script emerges: frame the healthcare system’s dysfunction as a shared struggle, acknowledge public frustration, and reaffirm the company’s purpose without offering action.
Take the line: “We need to improve how we explain what insurance covers.” Translation: it’s the customer’s misunderstanding, not UHC’s denials, causing issues. The 34% of insured individuals denied treatment likely see it differently.
Then comes the appeal-to-authority fallacy: “Behind each decision lies a comprehensive and continually updated body of clinical evidence.” Missing here is the profit motive. UHC’s $32.4 billion in 2023 speaks louder than this classically elitist ploy.
So he’s saying we just don’t understand. No need to commit to concrete reforms—like restoring consultation service codes or reducing admin burdens on doctors. Such steps far removed from Mr. Witty’s likely own lived reality, where most likely premium concierge care ensures he never has to navigate the same broken system as the rest of us.
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prochoiceinChi
3rdCoast 37m ago
Good luck to you, sir. You write that no employee shoudl "have to fear for their and their loved one's safety".
Can you understand that that is the terror that torments Americans that are hurt by our current system. It is indeed a system of tyranny from which we should be free.
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A
Virginia 37m ago
“The people of UnitedHealth Group are nurses, doctors, patient and client advocates, technologists and more. They all come to work each day to provide critical health services for millions of Americans in need.”
The people who process insurance claims are none of those things. Clinicians provide “critical health services.” People who review insurance claims do administrative work and never “provide critical health services.”
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Bob
Finland 37m ago
In what way did Brian Thompson make UHC more transparent, clear, effective, or human? Using AI to make decisions for a company with already 2x the average denial rate completely spits in the face of notion. He made the company more profitable at the expense of sick people. That's the end of the story. and until people recognize that, the US Healthcare system cannot be fixed.
Deny, defend, depose, and now gaslight.
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lizannes
Corvallis, OR 28m ago
The fox is assuring us that he really doesn't plan to devour every last bit he can, he's just misunderstood.
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Theo
California 28m ago
Mr. Witty: You, along with Mr. Thompson, allegedly engaged in insider trading by cashing out millions of dollars worth of shares in UnitedHealth in response to a DOJ investigation. I don't condone violence, but I don't think the American public needs lecturing from a white-collar criminal.
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Gary Pearlz
Portland OR 29m ago
Using grief to hide greed?
That’s gross.
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Leo House
CA 29m ago
Let’s be clear, United Healthcare is in the insurance business not the healthcare business just like Geico is in the insurance business not the automobile business. Don’t insult our intelligence by implying that you are trying to keep us healthy.
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Jeffrey W Kramer
Des Moines, IA 45m ago
The idea of United being involved with fixing the health system is akin to the idea of foxes fixing henhouse access or pedophiles fixing daycare security procedures. A good start to fixing the system would be to eliminate for-profit insurance companies from the equation, as they are parasites akin to tapeworms, ticks and lice.
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Collin
Mississippi 45m ago
In leaked internal videos sent to employees this week, Witty told employees, “We guard… against unnecessary care” and to “tune out critical noise”. He also went on to say there was “no use” in talking to the media. It is incredibly obvious - almost insultingly so - that this is a CEO who has gone all in on damage control for his broken mess of a company and the revolting soup that company swims in. He thinks we are stupid. This opinion piece is so disingenuous it makes my stomach turn.
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George
North Texas 53m ago
I would like to see the New York Times do a story on the physicians who work for insurance companies that are ultimately behind all the denials for treatment. Who are these people -- failed private practice doctors? Retired physicians trying to make some extra bucks? How much are they paid and are they given bonus incentives for a certain level of denials? So many questions.
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Chill Guy
Ann Arbor, MI 53m ago
Ahh nothing makes me feel more warm and fuzzy inside than the story of how Brian Thompson rose from humble beginnings to direct a company that spent millions lobbying against single-payer healthcare and implemented a hilariously error-riddled AI model to systematically deny elderly patients' healthcare. It really goes to show you that in America, with enough hard work and dedication, you too can make obscene profits off the misery of millions. Do we really need to hear more empty platitudes from these ghouls?
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