New York police are persevering with to look the scene the place 50-year-old UnitedHealthcare chief govt Brian Thompson was shot and killed yesterday.
A manhunt has been launched following a “focused assault” after the CEO was ambushed and shot by a masked assailant near the Hilton Resort.
The unidentified determine approached Mr Thompson and shot him within the again and leg earlier than fleeing on an e-bike.
Detectives have but to establish a motive or the id of the attacker however imagine it wasn’t a random act of violence.
In a press release, New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned: “I wish to be clear. Presently, each indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, focused assault.”
Mr Thompson had been on the helm of UnitedHealthcare, America’s largest non-public medical health insurance firm, since 2021.
Not like the UK, thousands and thousands of People depend on these companies to assist pay extortionate healthcare payments in a privatised sector. Nevertheless, one in seven insurance coverage claims within the US are denied.
Based on his spouse, Mr Thompson had obtained threats over “medical protection” prior to now.
“There had been some threats,” Paulette Thompson instructed NBC in an interview. “Principally, I don’t know, a scarcity of [medical] protection? I don’t know particulars.”
So who was Mr Thompson and what are UnitedHealthcare recognized for?
A member of the NYPD Crime Scene Unit takes an image of a shell casing discovered on the scene the place the CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson was reportedly shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan
REUTERS
Mr Thompson had a background in enterprise administration and beforehand labored at PwC earlier than venturing into medical health insurance.
He began working on the insurance coverage large in 2004 and labored his method as much as govt management.
On the time of his demise, the CEO and pa of two earned thousands and thousands of {dollars} every year from his position as the top of United Well being. The BBC reported that he earned £8m in 2023 alone.
Away from his work, he lived in Minnesota together with his household, who’ve paid tribute to him following his demise.
“Brian was an extremely loving, beneficiant, gifted man who actually lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” his sister-in-law mentioned.
UnitedHealth Group additionally issued a press release, including the corporate was “deeply saddened and shocked” to listen to in regards to the killing.
His demise has additionally prompted a slew of social media feedback, with many individuals taking goal at America’s medical health insurance panorama and the challenges on a regular basis People face in attempting to pay for healthcare – in addition to the position insurers play in that.
Based on CNN, he was investigated for allegations of insider buying and selling earlier this yr after he made a $15m (£11.7m) revenue by promoting 31 per cent of his shares simply earlier than the inventory worth plummeted.
Police have launched a picture of a suspect
NYPD
What’s UnitedHealthcare?
UnitedHealth Group is America’s largest healthcare conglomerate and oversees greater than 2,300 corporations throughout the model.
Throughout the organisation sits UnitedHealthcare, the medical health insurance department of the conglomerate that Mr Thompson oversaw.
UnitedHealthcare offers medical health insurance for people and employers, in addition to Medicare protection, and had greater than 53 million prospects world wide in 2023.
Nevertheless, based on the American Financial Liberties Mission, the organisation has a historical past of denying claims for procedures and drugs. This forces People to pay for his or her healthcare payments out of their very own pockets.
Between 2019 and 2022, UnitedHealth’s post-acute companies denial charge reportedly rose to 22.7 per cent.
In 2023, an AI algorithm utilized by the insurance coverage large systematically denied aged individuals’s claims for care like nursing-home help.
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