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Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini said in a recent interview that he believes the anger against him healthcare system is “justified” in the wake of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson.
Thompson’s death earlier this month has sparked a reaction effusion against the quality of health insurance and subsequent denials across the country.
“It would eliminate employer-sponsored insurance,” Bertolini he told CNBC as a potential solution to the current frustrations, adding that “your employer’s ability to negotiate with a large insurance company that has a much larger relationship with the provider community is very limited now.”
“You can’t do that now. The (employer) companies don’t have leverage now,” he continued. “When you look at the core foundation of our economy, which is small business and the middle market, they don’t have any.”
The health executive rejected the idea that claim rates are not lower for the individual market.
“Employers buy for the average of their employee population. They buy large networks because their employees use many providers,” he said. “As a result, the ability to negotiate a better rate with this group of providers is much less because everyone is there.”
“But when you get narrow networks, which is what happens in the individual market, an individual can find their network,” he added.
Thompson wasshot and killedlast week outside a midtown Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual investor conference. After the deadly shooting, many other healthcare companies started deleting photos of their top executives from websites and even moved to virtual investor meetings.
The suspect, 26 years old Luigi Mangionewas found in pennsylvania last week and nowhe faces five chargesincluding second degree murder,according to an arrest warrant.
Reports of a document found in his possession point to his frustration with the health system and UHC in particular.
UnitedHealth Group told The Hill in a statement that Mangione and his mother they were not insured by the company.
The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel and Ella Lee and contributed reporting.
