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UnitedHealth Group leader breaks silence on CEO murder, says health care system is flawed
The leader of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, paid tribute to slain chief executive officer Brian Thompson and acknowledged that the health care system “does not work as well as it should” in an op-ed published in The New York Times on Friday.
There has been an “enormous outpouring of support” for Thompson and his loved ones after the UHC leader was shot and killed in New York City, Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, wrote, but he said company employees have also faced threats and vitriol online.
“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,” Witty wrote.
Witty said that he understood people’s frustrations with the health care system. Americans pay more than ever for health insurance, even as insurers are rejecting more than 1 in 5 claims. Most adults in the U.S. say they worry about their ability to pay for health care services or unexpected medical bills, according to a 2024 KFF survey. The New York Police Department said that there is no indication Mangione was a client of the company, but officials believe UHC may have been targeted due to its status as the largest health insurer in the U.S.
Since Thompson’s murder, some have used social media to vent about their experiences with health insurance companies, and others have even celebrated Thompson’s accused killer, Luigi Mangione. The shooting has thrust a new spotlight on the safety of executives and other high-ranking employees.
“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,” Witty wrote. “And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades.”
Witty said that while UHC is willing to “partner with anyone” who could help the system work better, “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,” he wrote.
Witty said that Thompson is among the people working in the health care industry who “try to do their best for those they serve.” The UHC CEO was raised in the same farmhouse as his mother, Witty wrote, and worked farm jobs as a child. That rural upbringing inspired his ethos as CEO, Witty said.
UnitedHealthcare
“He never forgot where he came from, because it was the needs of people who live in places like Jewell, Iowa, that he considered first in finding ways to improve care,” Witty wrote. “When a colleague proposed a new idea to Brian, he would always ask, ‘Would you want this for your own family?’ If not, end of discussion.”
Witty added that Thompson was “never content with the status quo” and praised the CEO for advocating for ideas that “were aimed at making health care more affordable, more transparent, more intuitive, more compassionate — and more human.”
“That’s Brian’s legacy, one that we will carry forward by continuing our work to make the health system work better for everyone,” WItty wrote.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in New York City jail until 2025 trial after withdrawing bail appeal
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a motion Friday to dismiss his appeal for bail, meaning he will stay in jail until his trial on sex trafficking charges in May 2025.
Combs was ordered held without bail when he was first arrested back in September, but his legal team appealed the decision multiple times.
When the most recent appeal was denied in late November, the judge said, “The Court finds that the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Prosecutors previously alleged that since his arrest, Combs has tried to reach out to potential victims and witnesses. They also claim he encouraged strategies to sway public opinion, such as having his children post about his birthday on social media.
Combs held at federal jail in Brooklyn
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He is accused of abusing and blackmailing multiple women with the help of associates and employees for over 15 years.
He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the only federal jail in New York City. Over the years, the jail has held other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, rapper Ja Rule and cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.
Combs’ trial is scheduled to begin May 5, 2025. Prosecutors have until the end of this year to turn over discovery.
If convicted of the charges, Combs could face decades in prison, experts say.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued an apparent warning Friday to Robert F. Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, after The New York Times reported that one of Kennedy’s top advisers had filed petitions to revoke the approval of a polio vaccine and several other shots.
“Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell, a polio survivor, denounced efforts “to undermine public confidence in proven cures” like the polio vaccine.
“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell said.
McConnell credited the “miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love” with saving him from paralysis when he contracted the disease at two years of age, and he praised the “miracle” of “the saving power of the polio vaccine” for the millions of children who came after him.
The Times article focused in large part on the work of attorney Aaron Siri for the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network, or ICAN, which petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 “demanding that the FDA suspend or withdraw approval” of Sanofi Pasteur’s inactivated polio vaccine, called IPOL.
Siri has been acting as an adviser to the transition team for Kennedy, who, if confirmed by the Senate, would oversee the FDA and the nation’s other public health agencies.
Siri called the Times article a “hit piece” that did not engage with the substance of the “legitimate” concern at the center of the petition he filed for ICAN.
“ICAN’s petition, filed in 2022, makes the reasonable request that the FDA, as required by federal law, require a proper clinical trial for IPOL prior to licensure,” Siri posted on X.
The Times report on Siri’s work sparked a renewed round of backlash against Kennedy by Democrats, too, who have criticized Trump for months over his ties with Kennedy.
As HHS secretary, Kennedy would have significant direct authority as the nation’s health secretary over how vaccines are studied, approved and recommended in the U.S. He and his FDA commissioner would also oversee how government lawyers respond to many of the legal battles Siri has launched against the agency over vaccines.
Kennedy himself has said he would not ban vaccines and has tried to distance himself from the “anti-vaccine” label, instead calling for further study of the shots. He recently resigned as chair of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that watchdog groups have found for years to be spreading misinformation over fears about vaccines.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he might be open to getting rid of some vaccines “if I think it’s dangerous,” pledging to listen to Kennedy.
“We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published this week, when he was asked if he’d sign off on a move by Kennedy to end childhood vaccination programs.
Extensive medical research has conclusively shown that vaccines do not cause autism.
Siri’s petition for ICAN has not progressed much at the FDA since it was filed in 2022. It is one of several legal efforts Siri has filed for groups against several shots, including a petition in 2020 over hepatitis B vaccines.
In a 2023 letter responding to the polio petition, the agency’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, wrote that the FDA “has been unable to reach a decision on your petition because it raises issues requiring further review and analysis by agency officials.”
Siri’s petition targets IPOL, which is the only “single-antigen” polio vaccine currently recommended for use in the U.S. The vaccine was approved in the 1990s.
Many children who receive immunizations for polio often do not receive IPOL, but rather, one of several combination vaccines that blend a harmless version of the poliovirus with other recommended antigens for various vaccine-preventable diseases.
The CDC says IPOL is “mainly used as a travel vaccine for adults.” The agency says that the “body of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports” the safety of polio vaccines.
Siri has hinted at plans for more petitions to the FDA, after Kennedy is in charge at HHS.
“It will help if there are outsiders, from the outside attacking in. For example, the FDA acts on petitions. If you want to license a product, you have to petition them. If you want a product to be withdrawn or reevaluated, you typically often have to petition them,” Siri told Del Bigtree, ICAN’s founder and a former campaign spokesperson for Kennedy, on his podcast last month.
“Somebody on the outside needs to be petitioning them,” Siri added.
contributed to this report.
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