UnitedHealth Group CEO steps down as company lowers, then withdraws financial outlook for 2025

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty is stepping down for personal reasons and the nation's largest health insurer suspended its full-year financial outlook due to higher-than-expected medical costs.

Chairman Stephen Hemsley will become CEO, effective immediately, the Minnesota company said.

Hemsley was UnitedHealth Group CEO from 2006 to 2017. He will remain chairman of the company’s board. Witty will serve as a senior adviser to Hemsley.

It has been a punishing period for UnitedHealth, starting in December when executive Brian Thompson was targeted outside of a New York City hotel and killed. While unrelated to the financial operations of the $340 billion healthcare giant, its shares have tumbled severely since the attack.

“I’m deeply disappointed in and apologize for the performance setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal challenges,” Hemsley said during an early Tuesday conference call. “Many of the issues standing in the way of achieving our goals as well as our opportunities are largely within our control. I am optimistic about our future as these issues are within our capacity to resolve. We will approach them with humility, rigor and urgency.”

The 60 year-old Witty joined the company in 2018 after serving about nine years as CEO of the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. He was named UnitedHealth’s CEO in February 2021, replacing Dave Wichmann.

UnitedHealth became one of the nation's largest companies under Witty’s leadership. Total revenue topped $400 billion last year, a 55% increase from the $257 billion UnitedHealth brought in the year before Witty became CEO.

Shares of UnitedHealth rocketed higher under Witty, too, up 60.5% since he took the company's top job.

Yet there have been several setbacks for UnitedHealth over the past five months as it wrestles with the national attention on Luigi Mangione, who was indicted last month on a federal murder charge in the killing of Thompson.

The case has captured the American imagination, setting off a cascade of resentment and online vitriol toward U.S. health insurers while rattling corporate executives concerned about security.

UnitedHealth cut its 2025 forecast last month following its first quarterly earnings miss in more than a decade. On Tuesday the company withdrew that financial forecast entirely, saying that medical costs from new Medicare Advantage members were higher than expected.

Shares of UnitedHealth, which have plummeted 38% since the deadly Dec. 4 ambush of Thompson in midtown Manhattan, fell more than 16% Tuesday to levels last seen almost five years ago.

Other big insurers tumbled as well, with Elevance, Humana and Cigna falling between 4% and 7%.

More than 50 million people have health insurance under UnitedHealth Group Inc. It also has a large pharmacy benefit manager that runs prescription drug coverage and a growing Optum segment that delivers care and provides technical support.

UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, with more than 8 million customers. Those are privately run versions of the federal government coverage program mostly for people ages 65 and older.

AP Health Writer Tom Murphy contributed to this report.

FILE - A view of the UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s campus is shown Oct. 16, 2012, in Minnetonka, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

FILE - Andrew Witty, Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group, testifies at a Senate Finance Committee hearing examining cyber attacks on health care, and the Change Healthcare cyber attack, on May 1, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, appears in Manhattan state court in New York, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP, File

FILE - In this April 29, 2014, file photo, Stephen Hemsley, president and CEO of UnitedHealth Group, speaks at a news conference, in Southfield, Mich. (AP Photo/File)

NÜRBURG, Germany (AP) — Four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen's chances of victory in his 24-hour racing debut at the famed Nürburgring track have been ended by an apparent mechanical issue with his car.

Verstappen had been leading Sunday morning by over half a minute, sharing a Mercedes AMG GT3 car with experienced sportscar racers Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella.

Juncadella had just taken over from Verstappen when he had to slow down with an issue affecting the rear-right of the car and lost the lead before pulling into the pit lane. The car had not returned from the garage after an hour.

Coming a week before F1 returns at the Canadian Grand Prix, the Nürburgring race was a “bucket list” project for Verstappen. He's a keen racing fan and has questioned his future in F1 this year because he's unhappy with the 2026 cars' reliance on electrical power.

Verstappen made an immediate impact in his first stint Saturday evening with a fast, aggressive style typical of his driving in F1, going from 10th to the lead with a series of overtakes. At one point, he lost grip over a bump and ran wide onto the grass, narrowly missing the barrier and he was later in a close battle for the lead overnight.

Verstappen was familiar with the Nürburgring after taking part in a series of shorter races in recent months to add to his years of virtual experience from realistic online simulator races.

It was still a challenge unlike anything in F1.

With 161 cars spread out along a 15.8-mile circuit, Verstappen had to weave past much slower cars and deal with constantly changing weather conditions on a hilly track where it can be raining hard at one point and dry at another.

It was also his first real test of night-time endurance racing without the huge floodlights that F1 uses to light up the track.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Max Verstappen stands in his pit before the start of a pit stop and observes the work during the Nurburgring 24-hour auto race in Nurburg, Germany, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

The pit crew works on Max Verstappen's Mercedes AMG GT3 car during the Nurburgring 24-hour auto race in Nurburg, Germany, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

Daniel Juncadella, right, helps his teammate Max Verstappen to get into the car during a pit stop the Nurburgring 24-hour auto race in Nurburg, Germany, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

Max Verstappen, driving the Red Bull Mercedes AMG GT3, flashes his his headlights as he demands a clear path from a slower vehicle during the Nurburgring 24-hour auto race in Nurburg, Germany, Saturday May 16, 2026. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)

The pit crew works on the leading Max Verstappen's Mercedes AMG GT3 car, right, as it completes a pit stop at the same time as the second-placed Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL with Germany's Maro Engel, Germany's Luca Stolz, Germany's Fabian Schiller and Germany's Maxime Martin, during the Nurburgring 24-hour auto race in Nurburg, Germany, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Thomas Frey/dpa via AP)