UnitedHealthcare Group Turns to Former CEO to Steer Its Comeback – C-Suite Transitions

Healthcare in the U.S. is broken. It is one of the few industries where a vast chasm exists between the provider of the service and the consumer. Price discovery in this dark chasm is a futile and often frustrating experience. It also happens to be an entrenched industry that has been difficult to disrupt.

For a period of time the holy trinity of capitalism, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Amazon (AMZN) came together to provide low-cost health insurance with Dr. Atul Gawande at the helm of this initiative. They gave up three years later.

In an unfortunate sign of how broken the system is, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare (not of the entire UnitedHealthcare Group, which encompasses many divisions), was tragically shot dead in public in December 2024. The remarks to the killing, which were often celebratory, were just as shocking as the act.

For years, UnitedHealth Group was a steady, well-oiled machine in a complex healthcare system that benefited investors and catapulted the company to a half a trillion dollars market cap. I was absolutely shocked to see an insurance company hit such a massive market cap. Yes, I am aware that Berkshire Hathaway got there first, but then again the two are not even in the same ballpark in terms of the types of businesses they operate and how they do it.

But lately, the bloom is off the rose for UnitedHealth Group. Between a surprise CEO exit, federal investigations, and a rare earnings stumble, the company is facing more pressure than it has in over a decade. And it’s not just UNH—some of these issues point to bigger shifts rippling across the entire healthcare space.

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