NCAA President Charlie Baker Faces UnitedHealth Insurance Storm

In November 2023, just eight months into his tenure as NCAA president, Charlie Baker joined the board of UnitedHealth Group. In announcing his addition, the company praised Baker’s track record in both politics and insurance, including his “deep health care experience.”

Baker’s background may be more relevant than ever for the health insurance giant. Following the assassination of a top executive on a street in New York City earlier this month, the company has become the face of a much wider backlash against carriers, who many Americans believe are unfairly prioritizing profits over public health. Baker notably faced similar criticism in the late 1990s, when he helped lead Harvard Pilgrim out of bankruptcy.

His appointment last year to UnitedHealth Group’s leadership came amid a broader effort by the company to freshen up its board, which has seen several new directors join since 2019.

“UnitedHealth Group has unique capabilities to improve health care outcomes, lower costs and make the experience better for both patients and providers,” Baker said in a statement at the time of his appointment, adding that he was “honored to join such a distinguished board.”

In a proxy statement, the company noted Baker’s “distinguished career in business, nonprofit and government administration,” which included his role as CEO of nonprofit health insurer Harvard Pilgrim. An illustrated matrix outlining the director nominees’ “skills & expertise” showed Baker checking eight of 11 essential boxes, with his few missing assets being a lack of clinical practice, diversity and experience with direct-to-consumer markets.

“President Baker is in an enviable place to impact and improve healthcare access and security for millions of Americans, and college athletes, through his dual role,” said Julie Sommer, executive director of The Drake Fund Education Fund, a sister organization of the college sports reform group. “The needs of young people who put their bodies on the line for their schools and fans can no longer be overlooked—and the time for action is now, while the NCAA is looking for legislative guidance on NIL, compensation, antitrust exemptions, and other issues that can make it a partner in athlete health and well-being.”  

Following the Dec. 4 targeted killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the company has come under increasing media attention and public animus. (UnitedHealthcare operates as the insurance division of the UnitedHealth Group, the Minnesota-headquartered multinational that also owns healthcare technology company Optum.)

Baker did not respond to a request for comment for this story sent through an NCAA spokesperson, and he is not known to have publicly addressed his UnitedHealth Group role aside from the statement accompanying the press release of his board appointment. 

In October, Baker received 151 shares of deferred common stock units for his quarterly compensation as a company director, which are immediately vested but must be retained through the duration of his board service. According to SEC disclosures, that brought Baker’s total common stock holdings to 622 shares, which is worth around $300,000 as of Tuesday morning—down from a high of $389,000 on Nov. 11.

On Friday, ProPublica reported on internal documents produced by Optum, which it described as the company’s “strategic playbook” in denying treatment to thousands of children with autism. That same day, a New York Times op-ed by Andrew Witty, the UnitedHealth Group’s CEO and de facto board member, attempted to lower the temperature of the recent criticisms of the company. It instead generated a torrent of negative comments.

Baker can relate to Witty’s predicament.

In 1998, Baker took over as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim at a time when the insurance provider was hurtling toward bankruptcy. In 2000, the company, which had recently ended its operations in Rhode Island, was put into a temporary receivership with the state of Massachusetts. At the time, its net worth was negative $100 million and it was expected to have more and more losses.

With Baker at the helm, Harvard Pilgrim created a turnaround plan to generate positive revenue by the second half of 2000, which included raising premiums by 150% and dropping coverage on some senior policyholders. By 2008, the company was on solid financial footing and Baker was rewarded with $1.7 million in compensation. In July 2009, Baker stepped down from Harvard Pilgrim to mount his first run for governor of Massachusetts, which he ultimately lost to Deval Patrick. Afterward, he was named an executive in residence for venture capital firm General Catalyst, before gearing up for his second gubernatorial run in 2014.  

During that campaign, Baker’s Harvard Pilgrim pay—which had tripled over the course of his tenure—became the source of repeated attacks by his Democratic challenger, Martha Coakley.

In response, Baker and his defenders argued that he saved the company from collapsing at a precarious time, and that his compensation was signed off on by none other than Coakley, who was the former Massachusetts attorney general for three of the years he was at Harvard Pilgrim.

Baker ultimately prevailed in the race and prioritized health care reform during his administration, signing several pieces of legislation and defending key aspects of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act against attacks from Republicans.

Baker is not the only NCAA official to have served on a corporate board while working for the governing body. Former NCAA president Mark Emmett served on the boards of directors for pharmacy services provider Omnicare, timberland company Weyerhaeuser and global logistics firm Expeditors International of Washington. As Sportico was first to report, Donald Remy, the NCAA’s chief legal officer—who later became deputy secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs—joined the board of Garretson Resolution Group in September 2016, just two months after the firm had been approved to manage the NCAA’s concussion monitoring program.