
A banner hanging from on overpass along the southbound lane of I-83 that says, "Deny Defend Depose Health Care 4 All." Lloyd Fox | Baltimore Sun | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Major insurance stocks have fallen more than 6% since their closing prices last Tuesday, the day before the deadly shooting of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth Group 's insurance arm, in midtown Manhattan. That includes UnitedHealth, CVS Health and Cigna , which operate three of the nation's largest private health insurers. Thompson, 50, led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private payer of health insurance benefits in the U.S. Luigi Mangione , 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan early Wednesday last week, as the CEO headed to UnitedHealth Group's investor day. Investigators have said Mangione was a critic of the health-care industry, a view some Americans sympathized with online in the days after Thompson's death. The stock performance of the companies appears to be in response to the "renewed rhetoric" condemning insurers' business models, where they "wind up incredibly profitable at the expense of some patients at different points of the year," Jared Holz, Mizuho's health-care equity strategist, said in an interview. He noted that it is not a new theme in the industry, which many Americans blame for their spiraling health-care costs. "I think the response investors have had is, 'do we want to own this category of stocks if there's going to be this now renewed negative focus on the industry?'" Holz said. UnitedHealthcare, similar to other big insurers, has faced lawsuits and criticism from regulators, lawmakers and patients alike over allegedly denying claims to maximize their profits. Americans have criticized insurance companies over denied coverage for services or treatments, unexpected bills, hefty out-of-pocket costs and the dizzying complexity of navigating coverage, among other issues. While backlash to the industry has mounted since the shooting, Holz said the negative stock reaction will likely wind up being "fairly short-lived." He added that he does not expect insurance companies to make material changes to their policies in response to the killing. "Do I think companies do anything proactively different on the back of this? No," Holz said. Booking photo of Luigi Mangione in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Source: PA Department of Corrections New York prosecutors charged Mangione with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a loaded gun and other crimes Monday night, hours after his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The New York charges followed Mangione's first court appearance in Pennsylvania on separate gun and forgery counts. Mangione, a private-school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate who belongs to an influential Maryland family, was held without bail after his arraignment Monday evening. In a court hearing Tuesday afternoon, Mangione refused to waive his right to challenge his extradition to New York City. A judge denied Mangione's bail, sending him back to a Pennsylvania prison for the time being. At the time of his arrest, Mangione was carrying handwritten pages that criticized the U.S. health-care industry and singled out UnitedHealthcare, law enforcement officials told NBC News. "I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming," Mangione wrote, NBC reported. Authorities are still investigating the motive for the shooting, which will "come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and months," New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told NBC's "TODAY" show on Tuesday. But she noted that Mangione's note had "anti-corporatist sentiment, a lot of issues with the health care industry." Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO This is the biggest AI winner two years after ChatGPT's debut — and it's not Nvidia Goldman Sachs has a trading strategy to score a few big wins before year end Bernstein says this tech stock is its best idea for 2025, could be added to S&P 500 Oracle is on pace for the best year since 1999. What led to the meteoric rise
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By Hadriana Lowenkron | Bloomberg Billionaire Elon Musk called for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, highlighting the renewed threat under President-elect Donald Trump to a regulatory agency that has long been a target of Republicans and business advocacy groups. “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” Musk wrote in a post on his social-media platform X early Wednesday. Musk’s criticism is notable because he, alongside technology entrepreneur and fellow businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by Trump to run a new effort, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to slash the federal bureaucracy and reduce government spending. And Musk’s move signals a new stage in a long-running Washington fight over the agency’s powers and very existence. The CFPB — the brainchild of progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis and given the job of overseeing parts of the financial industry that interact with consumers. The agency, though, has endured a rocky political tenure, facing multiple legal challenges since its onset. During his first term, Trump took steps to largely neutralize the agency, easing the CFPB’s enforcement of banks. But under President Joe Biden and Director Rohit Chopra, the agency has taken an aggressive regulatory approach to consumer finance, cracking down on home foreclosures and bank overdraft fees. Earlier this year, the agency also scored a win in the courts when the US Supreme Court upheld its funding system. Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for a second Trump term crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls for abolishing the agency, calling it “highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable,” and “returning the consumer protection function of the CFPB to banking regulators and the Federal Trade Commission.” Related Articles Business | LA County supervisors start the ‘how’ of reform, led by a 13-member task force Business | CalOptima audits Andrew Do’s tenure with the agency following corruption plea Business | 2024 election results: Thursday update for Congress, Assembly, state Senate representing LA County Business | A year after the Tustin hangar fire: no cause determined and tough choices ahead Business | LA County OKs supplemental spending; budget rises to $49.2 billion Chopra’s own future as head of the CFPB is in jeopardy. Since a 2020 Supreme Court ruling making the role at-will, the incoming president will have the power to fire Chopra if he doesn’t resign first. Removing him would be a victory for businesses that have sought to weaken independent federal regulators. Musk has already demonstrated his influence over the incoming administration, including sitting in on transition meetings and calls with foreign leaders. But it is unclear how much power his Department of Government Efficiency will wield in its efforts to scale back the federal government. Trump has said it will “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform.”