Shares of UnitedHealth Group tumbled nearly 18% on Tuesday, erasing more than $67 billion in market value, after the healthcare giant announced the sudden resignation of CEO Andrew Witty and the suspension of its 2025 financial outlook. The dramatic selloff marks the company’s steepest single-day decline since 1998 and sent shockwaves through the broader health insurance sector.
UnitedHealth stated that Witty stepped down “for personal reasons,” effective immediately. Stephen Hemsley, who previously led the company from 2006 to 2017 and currently serves as board chairman, has returned to the CEO role. Witty will remain as a senior adviser during the transition.
The leadership shakeup comes at a turbulent time for UnitedHealth. The company has been grappling with a series of crises over the past year, including the tragic murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a major cyberattack that disrupted healthcare payments nationwide, and mounting scrutiny from regulators. Most recently, UnitedHealth reported its first earnings miss since the 2008 financial crisis and cut its annual profit forecast, citing unexpectedly high medical costs-particularly in its Medicare Advantage business.
On Tuesday, UnitedHealth also withdrew its financial guidance for 2025, citing accelerating care activity and persistently high medical expenses among Medicare beneficiaries. The company signaled that these challenges have broadened across its benefit offerings, making it impossible to provide reliable forecasts in the near term.
The market’s reaction was swift and severe. UnitedHealth’s stock opened sharply lower and continued to slide, dragging down other major insurers including CVS Health, Elevance Health, Humana, and Cigna. The selloff also weighed heavily on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, given UnitedHealth’s significant index weighting.
In a call with analysts, Hemsley acknowledged the setbacks but expressed confidence in the company’s ability to resolve its operational and financial challenges, stating, “Many of the issues standing in the way of achieving our goals are within our control. We will approach them with humility, rigor, and urgency.”
With investor confidence shaken and the company facing heightened uncertainty, UnitedHealth’s leadership transition and financial reset mark a defining moment for the nation’s largest health insurer as it navigates a period of unprecedented scrutiny and volatility.
