I can usually empathize, but I’m just not feeling it.
Thatcher and Nixon were people who made choices, had families, and implemented incredibly shitty policies because they believed in them (as much as a politician does). I can understand that: they did what they believed was right.
This CEO was a very well paid cog in a machine designed to avoid giving subscribers treatment they need and deserve. His company built systems and processes to maximize suffering and difficulty to avoid granting coverage to people who had paid for it.
He did nothing on principle. He helped build and perpetuate a horrible system so he could get richer from the suffering of others. No belief. No higher goals. Just money. He set out to become a rich cog, and he succeeded.
I haven’t been able to find anything about the guy or his time in the position at United Health Care. Do you have anything you could share so I could find out more about him?
Thompson joined UnitedHealth Group in 2004 and was named CEO of UnitedHealthcare government programs that included Medicare and retirement, and community and state divisions in 2021. Under his leadership profits at UHC went from $12 billion in 2021 to $16 billion in 2023.
The investigation revealed that in 2019, UHC’s prior authorization denial rate was 8.7%. Thompson became CEO in 2021, and by 2022 the rate of denial had increased to 22.7%. For both Medicare and non-Medicare claims, UHC declines at a rate double the industry average.
A lawsuit was filed against Thompson, UnitedHealth chairman Stephen J. Hemsley and two other senior executives in May 2024 for alleged fraud and insider trading due to failing to disclose an antitrust investigation into the company by the United States Department of Justice and by selling stock options before the probe was made public.
I can usually empathize, but I’m just not feeling it.
Thatcher and Nixon were people who made choices, had families, and implemented incredibly shitty policies because they believed in them (as much as a politician does). I can understand that: they did what they believed was right.
This CEO was a very well paid cog in a machine designed to avoid giving subscribers treatment they need and deserve. His company built systems and processes to maximize suffering and difficulty to avoid granting coverage to people who had paid for it.
He did nothing on principle. He helped build and perpetuate a horrible system so he could get richer from the suffering of others. No belief. No higher goals. Just money. He set out to become a rich cog, and he succeeded.
Sure worked out for him ;) let’s do the rest.
Why waste the extra energy trying to sympathize for one of the most despicable companies veiled under the moral bleach of Healthcare?
I haven’t been able to find anything about the guy or his time in the position at United Health Care. Do you have anything you could share so I could find out more about him?
From his Wikipedia page, some selected excerpts:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Thompson_(businessman)
Oh. Wow.
Dang, fuck that guy