Leonard Abramson (born in 1932,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

) is a philanthropist and the founder and former CEO of U.S. Healthcare.

Early life and career

Born in

, and raised in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

.Philadelphia Inquirer: "$1 Billion Man He's Collecting Huge Fares" by Gloria Campisi
April 2, 1996 Abramson attended the

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, driving a taxi for cash to cover his expenses. After graduating, he worked as a salesman for

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

Parke-Davis Parke-Davis is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Although Parke, Davis & Co. is no longer an independent corporation, it was once America's oldest and largest drug maker, and played an important role in medical history. In 1970 ...

. He then worked as a retail pharmacist for six years and then took a job with R.H. Medical Inc., a small hospital-management company then headquartered in

Cheltenham, Pennsylvania Cheltenham is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, United States, with a ZIP code of 19012. It is located directly over the city line (Cheltenham Avenue) of Philadelphia. It also borders Northeast ...

where he served as vice president for corporate development.Philadelphia Inquirer: "u.s. Healthcare's Abramson: Dedicated, Perhaps Ruthless" By Gilbert M. Gaul
April 2, 1996 Relying upon federal funding available through the HMO act of 1973, and the employer's obligation to offer HMO to employees, he left R.H. Medical and with the aid of $3 million in federal loans, he founded a non-profit HMO, ''HMO of Pennsylvania.'' In 1981, he abandoned the company's nonprofit status and in 1983, he took the parent company, renamed U.S. Healthcare Inc., public. Abramson headed U.S. Healthcare from 1975 until 1996, when he sold it to

Aetna Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

for $8.3 billion. He then served on Aetna's board of directors from 1996 to 2000. In 1990, Abramson published a book, ''Healing Our Health Care System'', attacking what he perceived to be the problems of the American health care system, which he called "nothing less than a national disgrace."

Personal life

Abramson married Madlyn Abramson in August 1957, they have three children. The Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life in North Wales, PA is named in honor of the couple.Philadelphia Inquirer: "Family's $100 Million Gift To Penn Has Personal Roots" By Huntly Collins
December 12, 1997 , ''Asked if Jewish tradition and values had influenced her philanthropy, she referred to the Hebrew word for righteousness and charity: "Jewish people are taught the word tzedakah . . . from the time they are children. . . . We he Abramson familyare very Jewish-minded and American-minded."'' In the late 1990s, Abramson sued

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is n ...

for invading his privacy when the news show covertly videotaped him and his family at their

Jupiter, Florida Jupiter is the northernmost town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the town had a population of 61,047 as of April 1, 2020. It is 84 miles north of Miami, and the northernmost community in the Miami met ...

home, as part of an exposé on the lifestyles of wealthy

HMO In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded heal ...

executives. During August 2022, Abramson sold his 7,509-square-foot home at the waterfront of Jupiter's Admirals Cover for a reported $7 million.

Philanthropic activities

Madlyn Abramson was a cancer survivor, and the gave donation summing up to $140 million to build the Abramson Cancer Research Institute at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Cancer Center. Additional contributions were given to fund the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Pediatric Research Center in the

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its primary campus located in the University City, Philadelphia, University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia in the campus of the Uni ...

, professorships and chairs in the University of Pennsylvania and in Johns Hopkins' medical schools, and to the

Foundation for Defense of Democracies The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank and registered lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., United States. The group's political leanings have been described as hawkish and neoconservative ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abramson, Leonard 1932 births Living people American businesspeople Jewish American philanthropists University of the Sciences alumni