UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting opens a door for many to vent frustrations over insurance

For years, patients in the U.S. health care system have grown frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand.

For years, patients in the U.S. health care system have grown frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand.

Doctors are included in an insurer’s network one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be next to impossible. Coverage of care and prescriptions is often unceremoniously denied.

This week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness — from Americans sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants.

In particular, the words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry.

“All of a sudden, I am fired up again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2022.

Anderson said they couldn’t get coverage for machines to help his wife breathe or talk — toward the end, she communicated by blinking when he showed her pictures. The family had to rely on donations from a local ALS group, he said.

“The business model for insurance is don’t pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio.

“When Mary could still talk, she said to me to keep fighting this,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.”