Opinion | UnitedHealth Group C.E.O.: Brian Thompson Was Never Content With the Status Quo
As Brian Thompson’s family, friends and colleagues mourn his killing, we are bearing a grief and sadness we will carry for the rest of our lives.Grief for the family he leaves behind.
And grief for a brilliant, kind man who was working to make health care better for everyone.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.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.
No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety.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.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.
We are willing to partner with anyone, as we always have — health care providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments and others — to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs.Clearly, we are not there yet.We understand and share the desire to build a health care system that works better for everyone.
That is the purpose of our organization.Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood.We share some of the responsibility for that.
Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made.Behind each decision lies a comprehen...