UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting opens a door for many to vent frustrations over insurance
By Tom Murphy and Devi Shastri
Dec. 7, 2024 Updated 1:32 PM PT
For years, patients in the U.S. healthcare system have been frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand.
Doctors are included in an insurer’s network one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be next to impossible. Coverage of care and prescriptions is often unceremoniously denied.
The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson this week has unleashed a wave of exasperation, anger, resentment and feelings of helplessness from Americans about their interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants.
The words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry.
“I am fired up again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2022.
Anderson said they could not get coverage for machines to help her breathe or talk — toward the end, she communicated by blinking. The family had to rely on donations from a local ALS group, he said.
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“The business model for insurance is ‘Don’t pay,’” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio.
“When Mary could still talk, she said to me to keep fighting this,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.”
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