My point is CEOs aren't the only ones deserving of criticism. The shareholders are the bigger issue because they create the environment that pushes awful business practices in the name of a quarterly return.
Yeah that theory doesn't hold in practice. These are the folks that pressure Fortune 500 companies with hostile takeovers if they don't do stock buy backs. The general public doesn't pull that crap.
Hey, let's not discredit the amazing work that Brian Thompson accomplished as CEO! Before his joining UnitedHealthCare in 2022, their denial rate was 8%. Then, only one short year later, he managed to successfully drive that denial rate up to almost 28%! As the UnitedHealthCare conglomerate served some 122 million Americans that year, you can easily discern that Brian Thompson was directly responsible for ensuring that ~24 million Americans had their claims denied. Imagine how much less UHC would have made for their investors if they had to pay an addition 24 million American's health care claims!
So before giving all the credit to the board members and share holders, let's take a moment to understand exactly how hard Brian Thompson worked to ensure some ~24 million Americans went without doctor-approved medical support that they previously were entitled to.