(Reuters) -The suspect within the homicide of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:) government Brian Thompson was not a buyer of the well being insurer, an organization spokesperson stated on Friday.
Ivy League-educated Luigi Mangione was charged with homicide on Dec. 9 for the killing of Thompson in a brazen taking pictures exterior a Manhattan lodge earlier than an business convention, following a five-day manhunt.
In a New York Occasions (NYSE:) opinion piece on Friday, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty mourned the killing of Thompson and stated he understood public frustrations with the “flawed” U.S. healthcare system.
“Nobody would design a system just like the one now we have. And nobody did. It is a patchwork constructed over many years,” Witty wrote.
The killing has ignited an outpouring of anger from Individuals struggling to obtain and pay for medical care and has known as contemporary consideration to deepening resentment over well being protection.
Witty stated he and his colleagues had been “struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who’ve been barraged by threats.”
Current knowledge confirmed that sufferers at the moment are much more prone to have their claims denied, pay extra for premiums and medical visits, and face sudden prices for care they thought was lined by their well being plan.
“Well being care is each intensely private and really difficult, and the explanations behind protection selections are usually not nicely understood,” Witty stated.
“We share a few of the accountability for that. Along with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we have to enhance how we clarify what insurance coverage covers and the way selections are made.”
Insurers say they work to barter down elevated charges from medical doctors and hospitals, in addition to pricey prescribed drugs and medical gadgets.
The New York Occasions reported that an inner New York Metropolis Police report analyzing a doc discovered on Mangione when he was arrested concluded that he seen the killing as a justified response to what he believed to be corruption within the healthcare business.
