Posted on 12/13/2024 7:53:28 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The head of UnitedHealth Group is calling for change in the healthcare industry after the targeted killing of the CEO of one of its two subsidiaries.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside the Midtown Hilton Hotel in Manhattan at around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4. On Monday, Dec. 9, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the case.
At the time of his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Mangione was found to be in possession of a three-page manifesto critical of healthcare companies.
He condemned UnitedHealthcare's increasing market capitalization amid declining American life expectancy and criticized corporations for exploiting the country for profit.
Mangione included statements such as "These parasites had it coming" and "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done."
Since the 50-year-old Thompson's killing, some have expressed shows of support for Mangione, including on social media where the Towson, Maryland native has picked up hundreds of thousands of followers.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times published on Friday, Dec. 13, Andrew Witty, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, called for change in the industry.
"We greatly appreciate the enormous outpouring of support for Brian, who ran our health insurance business, UnitedHealthcare, as well as for our wider company, which I lead," Witty wrote. "Yet we also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats."
Witty went on to say, "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. Our mission is to help make it work better."
Witty added, "Clearly, we are not there yet. We understand and share the desire to build a healthcare system that works better for everyone."
We just got pricing for United Healthcare renewal for 2025. It’s going up 40%. Unaffordable for many.
The whole point of ObamaCare was to destroy the system, so they could implement Single Payer.
Hmmm. I wonder if Andrew might be a little worried that he may be on a copy-cat’s list, and hopes a little NYT ‘opinion piece’ might get him off someone’s list.
There are single payer systems with better outcomes and longevity than this crap system.
Those transgender surgeries don’t come cheap.
“He condemned UnitedHealthcare’s increasing market capitalization”
Maximizing stock prices should not be a concern in healthcare.
You’re assuming things are the way they’re supposed to be.
They’re not.
The entire system is rigged.
Well Golly Gee, aren’t you guys the reason an aspirin dispensed in a hospital costs around $40? You might want to start by rolling some of this crap back, huh? Insurance companies, along with their partners big pharma, have ruined the greatest healthcare system in the world for all but the very rich.
I’m not an uber-lefty like Mangione or anything, but it really has gotten ridiculous for the common folks out here.
Well, it sure ain't Canada or UK's. We're really bad, but they are really alot worse. So, where are you talking about?
Why all the angst? Medicare “Advantage” from UHC/AARP gets high marks from multiple sources and gets 9 million people to come back year after year to buy their coverage.
https://www.forbes.com/health/medicare/best-medicare-advantage-providers/
https://www.nerdwallet.com/p/best/insurance/medicare/best-medicare-advantage-plans
Obamacare is an abomination.
My wife is enrolled in a Medicare advantage plan.
She got really sick. They helped her.
I saw the final bill over 75,000$.
we paid 1100$
She was in a ICU for 4 days.
All those years of us paying medicare were a big help.
Medicare advantage at here in Hawaii is worth it.
Last summer I ended up in the hospital for the second time in my adult life age 67. My Hey Moe was Humana. They had a letter of denial waiting in my mailbox when I got home. I tried calling them locally. The worker said Humana was closing all in person branch offices nationwide.
I drove to the agency and a worker the only one left tried to place me on teleconference with a company call center. That wouldn't work so she got me connected to voice only to a call center about 5000 miles west of the USA. Helwo who I speaky too? Otey give me de letter claim number. Wait minute I connectie you to that department. A 20 minute wait and Helwo who I speaky too? you get the idea. After 3 call transfers I get someone who spoke English. She said we denied it because you said in the ER you felt a little better. I said I told the doctor that after my pulse rate climbed back out of the 30's and 40's. I said they wanted to run test and recommended that I be admitted as I had already seen my primary care doctor who was also getting an abnormal EKG.
It took a month and a lot of unneeded stress to finally make them {HMO} get off their lazy butts and look at my hospital records which justified being admitted.
I know a lot of what was the ins and outs before the DEMs destroyed healthcare along with some GOP like Frist.
Hey Moes such as UHC are sucking up huge Medicaid dollars taken from a system that was originally solely designed to be a safety net to workers who became disabled, their minor children, and very low income retired elderly. It was overseen by state Inspector General Offices. accountability was there and no Hey Moe rationing care.
I seldom post anymore. For 30 years I was the caregiver to the quadriplegic wife who passed in 2015. In 1993 I as well became disabled and was forced into retirement for an at that time unnamed neurological disorder that damaged my sensory processing system.
I have my battle scares from screaming matches with HMO's. They should be padlocked.
And long, long waitlists full of people suffering, waiting months, sometimes years for surgeries that we Americans can schedule in a few weeks.
We've had Medicare “Advantage” from UHC/AARP for a couple of years now, and so far have been pretty happy with it. Started coverage while living in Connecticut, and continuing it now in South Carolina.
Apparently there are many like you (satisfied with their UHC or other companies’ Plan C/Adv. plan)...personally we decided we did want to risk what happened to the gentleman in post #15 of this thread and went with traditional Medicare with a supplement/”Medigap” policy...no “pre-approvals”, no HMO/PPO Dr. networks to worry about...what your doctor orders goes.
Medicare created Plan C/”Advantage” to help contain costs to the government (they pay the insurance companies a fixed monthly amount and do not have to process/pay for claims for Plan C enrollees). But “cost containment” measures like PCP approval for a specialist (HMO versions of Plan C), “pre-approvals”, etc. have some people “up in arms”.
“We’re really bad, but they are really alot worse.”
.
.
How many Americans travel to Canada for treatment?
I’d like to hear how Nanzi does with EU Healthcare.
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