When you look at UnitedHealth Group’s financial performance in recent years, the numbers are simply mind boggling.
The most recent figures, released in January 2024, show the health insurer earned $22.3 billion in profits last year. That’s nearly $2 billion a month. In profit.
The growth is equally staggering. United profits increased more than 60 percent over a four-year period, jumping from $13.8 billion in 2019 to $22.3 billion in 2023.
Growing profits about 15% in average — year after year after year — would make any CEO envious.
Needless to say, business is good.
So, why is the insurer seemingly focused on drastically slashing provider rates and terminating agreements with trusted healthcare providers? That’s the scenario that is playing out in Florida and numerous other states across the country.
Some would say that UnitedHealth is trying to squeeze every penny it can out of providers so it can continue to fuel its skyrocketing growth.
That may be good for the UnitedHealth execs and the bottom line, but it’s a disservice to the company’s policyholders and the healthcare providers who take care of them. Employers and individual consumers pay good money for these plans to receive access to a robust network of providers. Instead, UnitedHealth is generating record profits.
This approach is nothing new for the insurer: a June 2021 story in the LA Times, aptly titled “Our top private health insurer is rolling in cash. And it’s reducing coverage,” summed up the insurer’s callous approach:
UnitedHealth Group, parent of UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest private health insurer, earned $15.4 billion in profit last year. It took in more than $9 billion in profit during the first half of this year.
So, what does a well-heeled insurer do amid such a windfall? It seeks to reduce people’s coverage, of course.
The article highlights United’s “breathtaking insensitivity” and asks if “profit margin is a greater priority than people’s well-being.” That certainly appears to be the case in Florida and elsewhere…