Another gem dropped by Andrew Witty, CEO of United Health Group, in a New York Times opinion piece today:
“Health care is both intensely personal and very complicated, and the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that. Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made.”
Oh, really? Let’s pause for a moment to unpack that, shall we?
Specifically, the part where he says, “the reasons behind coverage decisions are not well understood. We share some of the responsibility for that.”
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Some of the responsibility? No, Andrew, you share all of the responsibility for that. Every last bit.
The reasons behind coverage decisions aren’t well understood because you—United Health Group and the entire health insurance industry—have made it so.
It’s not some random mystery why patients and providers alike are left scratching their heads. It’s because the entire system is designed to obscure the logic (or lack thereof) behind these decisions.
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And let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: those “coverage decisions” aren’t even being made by humans anymore.
In many cases, they’re automated, churned out by some computer algorithm that decides, in a split second, whether you get the care your doctor deems necessary.
A doctor, mind you, who has actually seen you, understands your condition, and knows what’s best for your health.
Meanwhile, an AI model trained on cost-cutting rather than caregiving is making life-altering decisions at scale.
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Physicians are entering a gray zone where clinical authority is exchanged for visibility, and the boundaries between care and promotion remain undefined.
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Daniel Paull MD tells of how prior authorization caused a patient to lose her leg.
Maybe this is the real version of Skynet—a system so cold, calculated, and detached from humanity that it doesn’t need killer robots to wreak havoc.
Instead, it just denies care with the click of a button, leaving patients to fend for themselves in a labyrinth of appeals, denials, and bureaucratic nonsense.
So, Andrew, thanks for the insight. But let’s not pretend the problem is a lack of clarity.
The problem is the system—and you run it.
