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.
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
Is the situation “being next”?
Yeah I expected people like Jim to be hiding in a cave in the middle of nowhere like Bin Laden right about now
That would require a modicum of self awareness.
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We can protect him from unnecessary care
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
Unnecessary for the company bottom line, yeah
It’s not enough that these people steal from us and kill us, but they also insist we not criticize them while they do it.
They don’t see as anything more than a resource, a resource that complains when it is harvested is an annoyance.
What do you think they will do when the military is fully automated? Become nice?
That’s why it’s time we shat back.
Lol just the mental image I now have of some angry person bent over and aiming their ass skyward while saying, “It’s time the shit rolled uphill.”
It’s beautiful Clark.
I was there when the magic was written.
Plz explain the deep magic!
Also, sorry about your table.
if you don’t like the reflection, don’t blame the mirror.
Oh I like this one.
“There are very few people in the history of the US healthcare industry who had a bigger positive effect on American healthcare than Brian [Thompson].”
Lol you fucking shitting me? This guy’s whole speech is a lie.
Not so much a lie as speaking from a very twisted point of view. From his perspective, making more money is the only kind of positive change. As the CEO who oversaw the highest denial rate in the industry, Thompson’s leadership would of course be seen as positive by his fellow executives.
Not really, if you don’t view doctors, nurses, technicians, researchers, or any of the other people as “the industry”
The industry seems to be limited to health insurance, and not healthcare.
Yeah, I was referring to the health insurance industry, which I do not consider at all a part of the healthcare industry. Aside from that, I’m not sure how any of the good folks laboring away helping others stay healthy are related to the denial rates or business executives I was talking about.
100%
In a way it’s true. In death, he’s having a hand in changing the public perception of privatized healthcare in the US, and perhaps will help spark change altogether.
we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or unnecessary care.
If he is going to be that far up his own ass, I hope he is at least checking for polyps.
They’d want people to learn self-colonoscopies so they can save on the 50 and over crowd.
If a handful of people are celebrating this and the rest are condemning that behaviour then sure I might listen to this dude.
If more than 95% of the comments I’ve seen across all platforms and political leaning, then I’m afraid that society has spoken and they’ve had enough of these parasites.
Do think we will have change? No, not unless we get more people willing to do things like that hero in NYC did the other morning.
For a non-American, his “industry” is one of the few deterrents to those considering moving to the United States (with guns and MAGA cultists)
I’m for one hoping they never catch The Adjuster.
ahaha that’s great
There he goes again, issuing yet more denials, and denying new claims and whatnot. Thats what got them here in the first place, christ. Have they learned nothing, this is very unwitty of “Mr. Witty”
Also, can we very much continue and expand with prefacing the pos’ name with the pre-nomial “$millions” they are compensated to spout their bullshit? Reminds me of congressmen being required to wear decals of their sponsors like racecars or something
In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to fall back to things you are familiar with
Never forget that when a business owner tells you that they put consumers first, nothing is stopping them from converting their business into either a cooperative or a nonprofit organization dedicated to the public benefit. Even if it’s the case that at some given moment, the business really is putting consumers first, there is no benefit to the consumer for the business to continue operating as a privately owned for-profit institution. The only benefit a for-profit institution provides that a cooperative or nonprofit cannot, is the power for leadership to prioritize their own interests above all other stakeholders whenever it suits them.
Non-profits also pay a lot less to their workers. I worked for one, for a while. Then I had to quit because I have bills to pay.
A lot of nonprofit organizations will try to justify underpaying workers on the basis of social interest. However, it certainly is not some kind of requirement and many do offer compensation which is competitive with what the private sector offers. And furthermore, if more firms in the market were structured in a cooperative or nonprofit manner such that this became the expectation instead of the exception, these firms would not easily be able to get away with underpaying workers because they’re not actually doing something special anymore.
By the way, none of this is to say that this would magically solve all of our problems or anything like that. It’s only that there will be a lot fewer problems to worry about when most businesses are legally obligated to prioritize the interests of consumers and workers above arbitrary shareholders
Well that all sounds nice. But it sucked for me.
Is the OTHER CEO of your company not an indication that you should probably stop your bitching?
Get the bankers out of my doctor’s office, the only people who should have the authority to decide what care is necessary is the physician treating me and myself when signing informed consent forums.
Dear asshole, we hate everything about your industry. Signed, fucking everyone except a few other rich assholes.
This topic is bringing the left and the right together. This affects all of us! Medicare for all is the way!
My Trump voting parents and sister agree. Democrats for some reason weren’t even talking about it in the election season, almost like their silence had been purchased by big medicine. Maybe this needs to be a national grassroots movement that rolls straight over our elected idiots.
State level electoral reform will break the two party system and usher in the non violent revolution jfk talked about so many years ago.
“Let them eat cake.”
I understand the reference. But in this case my immediate thought was “yeah, urinal cake!”
