Major insurance stocks have fallen greater than 6% since their closing prices last Tuesday, the day before the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth Group's insurance branch in Midtown Manhattan.
These include UnitedHealth, CVS Health And Cignawhich operate three of the country's largest private health insurers. Thompson, 50, led UnitedHealthcare, the biggest private payer of health care services within the United States
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson early Wednesday last week outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan because the CEO went to UnitedHealth Group's investor day. One view, investigators said, was that Mangione was a critic of the health care industry Some Americans sympathized with the Internet in the times following Thompson's death.
The firms' stock performance appears to be a response to “renewed rhetoric” condemning insurers' business models that see them “become incredibly profitable at different points of the year at the expense of some patients,” said Mizuho healthcare expert Jared Holz . care equity strategist said in an interview.
He noted that this shouldn’t be a brand new issue within the industry, which many Americans blame for rising health care costs.
“I think the reaction from investors was, 'Do we want to own this category of stocks now that the industry is being negatively targeted again?'” Holz said.
UnitedHealthcare, much like other major insurers, has faced lawsuits and criticism from regulators, lawmakers and patients alike for allegedly denying claims to maximise profits. Americans have criticized insurance firms for, amongst other things, denials of coverage for services or treatments, unexpected bills, high out-of-pocket costs and the dizzying complexity of navigating insurance coverage.
While backlash against the industry has increased for the reason that shooting, Holz said the negative stock response will likely be “pretty short-lived.” He added that he didn’t expect insurance firms to make significant changes to their policies in response to the murder.
“With this in mind, do I think companies are making proactive changes? No,” said Wood.
New York prosecutors charged Mangione with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a loaded weapon and other crimes on Monday evening, hours after his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The New York indictment followed Mangione's first court appearance in Pennsylvania on weapons and document forgery charges.
Mangione, a personal school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate who belongs to an influential Maryland family, was held without bail following his arraignment Monday night.
In a court hearing Tuesday afternoon, Mangione refused to waive his right to challenge his extradition to New York City. A judge denied Mangione bail and sent him back to a Pennsylvania prison.
At the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying handwritten pages criticizing the U.S. health care industry and singling out UnitedHealthcare, law enforcement officials told NBC News.
“I apologize for any disruption or trauma, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites just had it,” Mangione wrote, NBC reported.
Authorities are still investigating the motive for the shooting, which “will come to light as this investigation evolves over the next few weeks and months,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday on NBC's “TODAY” show. However, she noted that Mangione's note had “an anti-corporatist sentiment and a lot of issues with the healthcare industry.”
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