Summary
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty criticized public outrage over the health insurance industry following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson.
In a leaked video to staff, Witty dismissed criticism as “misinformation” and urged employees not to engage with media.
Thompson’s murder outside a Manhattan hotel has intensified scrutiny of the industry’s practices, with bullet casings found at the scene bearing phrases linked to insurance claim denial tactics.
The killing has sparked debate on UnitedHealthcare’s history of denying claims, while the shooter remains at large.
Witty faces unrelated DOJ insider trading allegations.
Never forget that when a business owner tells you that they put consumers first, nothing is stopping them from converting their business into either a cooperative or a nonprofit organization dedicated to the public benefit. Even if it’s the case that at some given moment, the business really is putting consumers first, there is no benefit to the consumer for the business to continue operating as a privately owned for-profit institution. The only benefit a for-profit institution provides that a cooperative or nonprofit cannot, is the power for leadership to prioritize their own interests above all other stakeholders whenever it suits them.
Non-profits also pay a lot less to their workers. I worked for one, for a while. Then I had to quit because I have bills to pay.
A lot of nonprofit organizations will try to justify underpaying workers on the basis of social interest. However, it certainly is not some kind of requirement and many do offer compensation which is competitive with what the private sector offers. And furthermore, if more firms in the market were structured in a cooperative or nonprofit manner such that this became the expectation instead of the exception, these firms would not easily be able to get away with underpaying workers because they’re not actually doing something special anymore.
By the way, none of this is to say that this would magically solve all of our problems or anything like that. It’s only that there will be a lot fewer problems to worry about when most businesses are legally obligated to prioritize the interests of consumers and workers above arbitrary shareholders
Well that all sounds nice. But it sucked for me.