CEO Killing and Rage Over Insurance Plunges UnitedHealth Into Crisis
After dayslong manhunt, police find suspect eating in a McDonald’s while carrying a manifesto decrying the health-care industry’s emphasis on profits
The first sign that something was amiss at UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s investor day was when Brian Thompson didn’t show up to his early morning hair and makeup appointment.
At around 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday of last week, Thompson, 50, was shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in a killing that gripped the world.
On Monday, police arrested a man in connection with the shooting who local officials found in Altoona, Pennsylvania, carrying a gun and a handwritten three-page manifesto decrying the health-care industry’s profit motives. While the police investigation unfolds, the $500 billion health-care company is simultaneously trying to cope with the personal tragedy of losing a top executive and a spiraling PR crisis that risks long-term reputational harm in a country where so many have turned against it.