Backlash continued to construct over the weekend in opposition to UnitedHealthcare following the stunning assassination of CEO Brian Thompson and a subsequent rant by mum or dad firm UnitedHealth’s CEO Andrew Witty, throughout which he defended the insurer’s practices as justified to be able to stop “pointless” care.
In response, a flood of social media customers shared tales about how the insurer denied them protection for what it deemed “pointless” care.
Witty final week despatched workers a video message condemning the “vitriolic” commentary on social media following Thompson’s loss of life. The message was solely despatched to workers of the multinational insurance coverage big, however a video recording was leaked and revealed by impartial journalist Ken Klippenstein on Friday.
“Our position is a essential position, and we be sure that care is secure, applicable, and is delivered when folks want it,” Witty mentioned. “And we guard in opposition to the pressures that exist for unsafe care or for pointless care to be delivered in a approach which makes the entire system too complicated and finally unsustainable.”
Witty advised workers to “tune out” the criticism levied in opposition to the insurer, insisting it “doesn’t mirror actuality.”
But customers on a number of platforms lashed out after the CEO’s feedback have been made public, with many sharing tales of how the corporate denied protection for well being take care of them, their associates, or their members of the family. The Daily Beast couldn’t verify the small print of any particular person posts, however dozens of commenters have used numerous social media boards to precise frustration with the corporate.
Users on Twitter shared tales about being denied protection, with some claiming the insurer denied protection for every thing from a mammogram or a hospital keep for a senior girl with Alzheimer’s.
A brand new mom took to TikTok to share her personal expertise getting booted from her UnitedHealth plan after she gave delivery—and now certified for Medicaid.
One consumer, YouTuber Justin Whang, mentioned that the corporate initially refused to pay for a specific medicine for his mom earlier than she tried one other different. The different drugs made her “quickly blind,” the YouTuber mentioned.
And one consumer on Reddit posted a denial letter from UnitedHealthcare, which confirmed the corporate refusing to pay for an influence wheelchair for a kid with cerebral palsy.
UnitedHealth Group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from the Daily Beast in regards to the video or the continuing backlash.
It’s not the primary time UnitedHealthcare has confronted criticism for his or her insurance policies surrounding denial of claims. A Senate subcommittee investigated United, in addition to Humana and CVS Health, over the surge in denial charges for seniors on Medicare Advantage plans for “expensive but essential stays in post-acute care services” for widespread points like falls and strokes.
According to a report revealed by the subcommittee in October, UnitedHealthcare’s denial fee for post-acute care grew from 10.9 p.c in 2020 to 22.7 p.c by 2022.
Doctors additionally weighed in from their standpoint, with some doctor commenters on Reddit reflecting on their poor experiences with the corporate that satisfied some to cease accepting UnitedHealthcare as a service.
Dr. Helen Ouyang, an emergency doctor, penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday. Ouyang condemned the responses taking glee in Thompson’s killing, however wrote about how her personal sufferers struggled to navigate their precarious health-care protection.
“That response, even in its objectionable vitriol, issues for the way it lays naked Americans’ deep-seated anger towards well being care,” Ouyang wrote. “Around the nation, anecdotes have been unleashed with furor.”
