UnitedHealthcare CEO killed in New York tried to improve 'patchwork' system, exec says
The leader of UnitedHealth Group wrote that the health insurance executive gunned down on a Manhattan sidewalk last week cared about consumers and was working to make the system better.
apnews.com
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was killed last week, was described as kind and brilliant by UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty in a guest essay published in The New York Times.
Witty said he understood people's frustration but described Thompson as part of the solution.
Thompson never forgot growing up in his family's farmhouse in Iowa and focused on improving the experiences of consumers.
"His dad spent more than 40 years unloading trucks at grain elevators. B.T., as we knew him, worked farm jobs as a kid and fished at a gravel pit with his brother. He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care," Witty wrote.
Witty said his company shares some responsibility for lack of understanding of coverage decisions.
"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. And no one did. It's a patchwork built over decades," Witty wrote. "Our mission is to help make it work better."
