UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty says America’s health system is poorly designed in response to Brian Thompson murder in NYC [Video]

In his first public response to the consumer outcry following the fatal shooting of one of his top executives, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said Friday that the US health system “is not perfect” and that coverage decisions “are not well understood.”

“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it,” Witty wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times. “No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades.”

Witty also defended UnitedHealthcare, the company’s health insurance arm, though he acknowledged that it shares some of the responsibility for the lack of understanding about decisions on care.

“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,” Witty wrote. “Behind …