UnitedHealth Shares Plunge After CEO’s Murder Prompts Fury at Health Honchos
finance.yahoo.com
Shares in the parent company of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson have plummeted, as his murder prompted renewed scrutiny of the industry and outrage over the state of US healthcare. UnitedHealth Group’s stock fell 5 percent on Friday alone, bringing its weekly loss to 10 percent. That wiped roughly $56 billion from the company’s market capitalization. After-hours trading continued to dip, dropping 5 percent on Sunday after a video leaked UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty, Thompson’s boss, s

UnitedHealth Group’s stock fell 5 percent on Friday alone, bringing its weekly loss to 10 percent. That wiped roughly $56 billion from the company’s market capitalization.

After-hours trading continued to dip, dropping 5 percent on Sunday after a video leaked UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty, Thompson’s boss, slamming industry critics on social media as “vitriolic” and “not in tune with reality.”

“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or unnecessary care,” Witty said in a private video to staff filmed in the wake of Thompson’s execution outside of a New York City hotel Wednesday.

The video, published by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Friday evening after markets closed, was met with backlash online. “Talk about misreading the situation,” one X user wrote.

UnitedHealth Group’s plunge follows similar trends in health insurance stocks.

Rival firm Elevance Health—the parent of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield—fell six percent by the end of the week.