In a recent email to UnitedHealth Group’s 440,000 employees, chief executive Andrew Witty highlighted messages from a breast cancer survivor and five other patients praising the insurer in the aftermath of the assassination of one of its top executives.

Since Brian Thompson, who ran the Minnesota-based group’s vast UnitedHealthcare insurance unit, was shot dead in midtown Manhattan earlier this month, however, sympathy for the country’s largest health insurer, which covers about 50 million Americans, has been in short supply.

Financial Times