Leonard Abramson, Health Care Innovator and Philanthropist, Dies at 93

Leonard Abramson, a former pharmacist who built U.S. Healthcare, one of the first health maintenance organizations, and who used some of the nearly $1 billion he received from selling it to give generously to cancer research and other medical causes, died on July 4 at his home in Blue Bell, Pa. He was 93.

His daughter Judith Abramson Felgoise confirmed the death.

Mr. Abramson started U.S. Healthcare at the right time: two years after the passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, which encouraged the growth of H.M.O.s to fight spiraling medical costs.

“Until then, H.M.O.s were very closed systems and U.S. Healthcare was one of the first companies to pioneer a much more open-ended H.MO. that could be expanded rapidly,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy for KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It was also one of the first H.M.O.s to convert from nonprofit to for profit, and many others followed in its footsteps.”

H.M.O.s like U.S. Healthcare were designed to increase cost efficiency by providing doctors and hospitals with a network of set fees for their services, instead of à la carte payments each time a patient is treated; they also controlled patient access to specialists within their networks.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/health/leonard-abramson-dead.html