Commentary | Reaction to CEO's assassination should be giant red flag to health care industry | Opinion
The assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthCare, has ripped a giant scab off a festering wound of patient discontent. Much to the surprise and displeasure of the media, there was little sympathy for Thompson's death. Television wags who commented unfavorably on the negative reaction to his death were shocked by the lack of public sympathy. The arrest of Luigi Mangione for the murder has done little to stop the applause. If anything, the assassin is being treated by some as a hero.
Media pundits and the health care insurance industry are surprised, blissfully ignorant that their elite position guarantees prompt care with minimal frustration. When United was hacked several months ago, it took the Department of Health and Human Services to compel them to send physicians and hospitals interim reimbursement until they could determine proper compensation. United is currently defending themselves from a lawsuit brought by a pension group in Florida and a Department of Justice investigation.
Medical care is considered by most as a right, not a privilege. But because of the extravagant cost, care has become less available. Medicare Advantage plans dominate because supplemental insurance is beyond the reach of many senior Americans, and supplemental premiums increase as one gets older. Television and mail advertisements broadcast glossy blurbs using healthy actors offering unlimited benefits without co-pay. Omitted are the vast and insurmountable hurdles that patients have to overcome to achieve good care. Authorizations, now negatively adjudicated in seconds by artificial intelligence, are challenging, tedious and time-consuming to overcome. The process becomes even more infuriating when life-threatening illness lurks in the background.
While the medical community is relectant to admit it, not all care is equal. The vast majority are good doctors. Most are diligent and devoted to the care of their patients, but even dedicated physicians are challenged by the current hurdles preventing them from practicing good medicine. Medicare has decreased physician reimbursements since 2000, and a 2.8% payment reduction is scheduled for 2025. Physicians try to keep up by increasing volume and outsourcing more work to assistants. Patient visits are short, incomplete and rushed, leaving the patient feeling unfulfilled. Many practices have been bought by private-equity firms, whose sole goal is profit. These firms place unreasonable productivity demands on their providers.
Patient co-payments and deductibles have been maxed out. Hospital and pharmaceutical charges are unaffordable. Be aware of the inflated price of Epi-pens, insulin, Dilantin, Ozempic and Wegovy. Remember Daraprim, a generic medicine whose price rose overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750 because of an unscrupulous Wall Street investor. The goals of Wall Street and the medical profession are antagonistic. There is little wonder that the majority of bankruptcies in America result from patients being unable to pay their medical bills.
Healthcare consumes 12-13% of our GDP. Our expenditures are twice that of any other country in the OEC (a group of rich countries). Yet our life expectancy and medical outcome markers place us about 18th. Control of health care has been taken from physicians and placed in the hands of large, for-profit entities making billions of dollars in profits at the expense of patients and physicians.
With politicians failing to pass legislation to address profound patient dissatisfaction, one wonders whether they are unaware or just in thrall to the enormous lobbying efforts of the insurance industry.
With patients trapped in this morass and their very lives hanging in the balance, there is little wonder that the majority of Americans resent health insurance companies and have little sympathy for the slain president of United Health Care. While we repudiate violence, we must see its celebration as a symptom of a truly serious disease.