People demonstrating against the health care industry stand outside Federal Criminal Court as Luigi Mangione, suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appears during an arraignment hearing on Dec. 19, 2024 in New York City.But even before Thompson's shocking death on a New York City street, and its ongoing aftermath, the business of Big Health Care was having a rocky year.
Costs are up, profits are down, top executives have lost their jobs, and investors are selling off the shares. for years. Industry executives say that this growth allows big companies to offer a wider array of low-cost health care services to more people, while critics and consumer advocates say that the size and scale of these companies makes them opaque and expensive, and ultimately leads to worse outcomes for patients. Mangione was found in possession of a notebook that 'contained several handwritten pages that express hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular,' according to the federal charging document filed by the FBI. For better or worse, the for-profit industry's size and scale seems here to stay. Health care spending accounted for $4.9 trillion last year – or. Thompson ran the largest U.S. health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, for a parent company that is even bigger: the overall UnitedHealth Group parent company is also the country's 'These massive organizations do everything under the sun, almost, when it comes to health care. They've got their tentacles everywhere,' says Lovisa Gustafsson of the Yet for all the power they wield, and all the money they make, these companies — and their investors — also have their discontents. CVS Health, the conglomerate that owns Aetna and is the These companies are still profitable. But because their profits aren't growing, their investors aren't happy: Shares of UnitedHealth, CVS Health, and other large health care conglomerates have fallen this year, while the overall market thrive