Pete Buttigieg's McKinsey consulting was followed by a premium hike at Blue Cross Blue Shield

Pete Buttigieg.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Pete Buttigieg has some very presidential explaining to do.

As the South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democrat began talking about his consulting work with McKinsey Co., former health insurance executive turned Medicare-for-all advocate Wendell Potter suspected Buttigieg worked with a client that would be "very significant in this campaign." And when Buttigieg's client list came out, Potter's hunch proved true: Buttigieg had worked with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan just before it hiked its insurance premiums and axed nearly 1,000 employees.

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Buttigieg's mysterious work for McKinsey had been a subject of criticism throughout his campaign, especially after a New York Times report showed McKinsey's work with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement led to severe cuts in detainee care. Buttigieg said he wasn't able to release the details of his work until Tuesday. After speaking with Buttigieg, The Atlantic reported he said he'd worked on "nothing having to do with policy or premium costs" at BCBS. "I don't know what the conclusions were or what it led to," Buttigieg said of his three months at BCBS when asked about the subsequent cuts.

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.