Top health insurance stocks plunge following 'increase in public vitriol' toward industry

10 December 2024

The biggest health insurance companies in the United States are all seeing a noticeable drop in their stock prices in the aftermath of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's assassination.

NBC News reported that UnitedHealth Group (the parent company of UnitedHealthcare), Cigna and CVS Health were all down by at least 6% on Tuesday. Other healthcare-related stocks that experienced a decline in value this week include Humana, Centene and Elevance Health.

According to NBC, UnitedHealth — which is the largest health insurer in the U.S. — saw an overall decline of more than $30 billion in the week since its CEO was murdered outside of his Midtown Manhattan hotel. And reporter Mike Calia noted that the stock prices of insurers tumbling "coincide with an increase in public vitriol directed at health insurers in the wake of Thompson’s death."

On Monday, 26 year-old Luigi Mangione — who comes from a wealthy real estate family in Maryland and has both undergraduate and graduate-level computer science degrees from the University of Pennsylvania — was arrested after being spotted at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonalds restaurant. Law enforcement found a 3D-printed "ghost gun" on Mangione's person, along with a manifesto that blasted the health insurance industry.

"I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done," the manifesto read. "Frankly, these parasites had it coming."

Mangione has been booked on five charges, including second-degree murder. Some of the other purported evidence includes surveillance footage from a New York youth hostel and a fake ID police found on Mangione when he was apprehended, along with the ghost gun. He's currently fighting extradition to New York and is being held in Blair County, Pennsylvania.

After Thompson was murdered, social media ignited with rage at the health insurance industry with users sharing various horror stories about their experience of having claims denied. The New York Police Department's efforts to enlist online sleuths to find Thompson's killer were promptly rebuffed, with one popular TikTok detective observing that many simply "don't care" about bringing the shooter to justice.

Click here to read NBC's report in full.

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