Leonard Abramson was the founder and CEO of U.S. Healthcare, and has become a major philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 in the Philadelphia area.

Early life

Abramson attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, driving a taxi for cash to cover his expenses. After graduating, he worked as a sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

man for pharmaceutical company

Pharmaceutical company

The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...

 Parke-Davis

Parke-Davis

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

, but, predicting that the massive growth in medical spending in the 1960s-70s could be addressed with prepaid medical plans, Abramson quit to found U.S. Healthcare in 1975.

U.S. Healthcare

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."

Abramson headed U.S. Healthcare from 1975 until 1996, when he sold it to Aetna

Aetna

Aetna, Inc. is an American health insurance company, providing a range of traditional and consumer directed health care insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, group life, long-term care, and disability plans, and medical management...

 for $8.3 billion. At the time of the sale, Abramson's salary was $3.85 million and he held shares worth $63.2 million. Abramson profited nearly $1 billion on sale. Abramson then served on Aetna's board of directors from 1996 to 2000. Currently, Abramson is on the Board of Directors of the NASDAQ

NASDAQ

The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 Stock Market, Inc., the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution

Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...

, and the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

.

Family life

In the late 1990s, Abramson sued Inside Edition

Inside Edition

Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...

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

Jupiter, Florida

Jupiter is a town located in Palm Beach County, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 39,328. The estimate population for 2009 is 50,606. As of 2006, the population had grown to 50,028, according to the University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research....

 home, as part of an expose on the lifestyles of wealthy HMO

Health maintenance organization

A health maintenance organization is an organization that provides managed care for health insurance contracts in the United States as a liaison with health care providers...

 executives.

Abramson's wife, Madlyn is a cancer survivor, and the couple pledged $100 million to build the Abramson Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 Cancer Center. The Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life in North Wales, PA is named in honor of the couple.