In early 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had an urgent warning for his colleagues: The company has a public relations problem. Average Americans didn't understand the massive insurance company's role in the nation's health system, Thompson argued in internal discussions and with fellow executives, including steps it had taken to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for lifesaving drugs, colleagues said. Instead, UnitedHealthcare and its parent, UnitedHealth Group, faced investigations, a congressional probe and simmering consumer anger over charges it was making billions by denying healthcare to the ill and the elderly.
From nearly the moment of Steward's founding in 2010, Massachusetts officials failed to discipline the Boston-born hospital chain for regulatory violations, check its aggressive expansion plans and relentless cost-cutting, or respond forcefully to dire warnings as it spiraled toward financial collapse, the Spotlight Team has found. Critical reports were softened, alarming financials went unheeded, and broken promises by Steward were unpunished. These failures spanned multiple administrations and contributed to a crisis that has harmed communities and cost lives.
In the days after Thompson was gunned down, UnitedHealthcare, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, UPMC and other major market players have retrenched online, fearing copycat attacks.