Boeing managed to wave enough money to entice Kelly Ortberg to be their new CEO. Surely UHC can do similar.

Ortberg knows he's there to be the scapegoat. He'll eat crow in front of the media and Congress. He'll push layoffs and cost cutting and draw the ire of the unions. When he leaves, the next CEO will point the finger at Ortberg for any remaining problems. And he negotiated a salary to match.

No..greed will prevail

Now how they act might be a different story.

Imagine holding the title of "CEO of the healthcare company whose CEO got fucking iced last week"

No, some other psychopath will just demand the company provide 24/7 private security and take the job with a raise. Then (likely he) will just kill more people to pay for it.

I'll take the job. But, fair warning, a lot of people will receive free healthcare.

Nah, money is money... but they'll probably need to include a security detail in the package.

Not at all. They’ll just beef up security.

No doubt the other insurance companies are doing the same. CEOs are probably hiring personal body guards to follow them too. I’d imagine this extends to CEOs of other industries outside of insurance too. They know they’re all seen as unpopular with most people.

No, and they will find ways to screw users more. Corpos are not anyone's friends.

Trouble? No, but they’ll raise the compensation to compensate for risk, which will only attract greedier more sadistic candidates.

Or…

They’ll hire a woman to clean up the mess (possibly at reduced compensation), because that’s the virtue signaling what corporations do when they are in a tight spot. Then, once she has turned things back around, they’ll swap a man back in and give him a bonus for all her hard work.

Companies have plans in place for continuance, so I'm sure they have a person that can take over in an event like this, even if it's just temporary until the board of directors chooses a new ceo

Not if this was an isolated incident. If it turns out to be something else then maybe.

Contrary to popular belief, CEOs aren't necessary for a company to run, but they do maximize the profits while they're there

They'll just keep a security detail. It won't even be a consideration. They'll just do it, and not even care that it happened.

They should make a whistleblower the ceo so they can have plausible deniability when the ceo is murdered

No, someone is jumping for joy at the promotion.

Not until 3 or 4 replacements are murdered. Then they will attempt to operate without one. (For as long as legal.)

I think the situation is quite the opposite. There is now an opening and I bet several people see this as an opportunity at advancement.

There will always be people who overestimate the rewards and underestimate the risks of an undertaking.