Mega-Insurer UnitedHealth Group Posts Double-Profits Off HMO Operations Protected by Obama

July 22, 2009 (LPAC)—UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest U.S. private HMO insurer (by revenue), closely tied with Britain, today announced that its Second Quarter profit more than doubled, in particular from its increased PPP sign-up of Medicare-supplement enrollees through AARP (American Association of Retired People), and from raising its insurance premiums. This announcement reflects back on President Obama, whose health-care "reform" plans are designed to protect HMO looting rights.

Lyndon LaRouche has called for the ending of all forms of health maintenance organization/"managed care" insurance operations, which have been imposed in the U.S. since the 1970s.

The Q2 net income of UnitedHealth Group Inc. rose to $859 million (73 cents a share), well more than double that of the same time a year ago, at $337 million (27 cents a share). This occurred despite the fact that many of its private insurance customers cancelled their policies over the past year because of the crash, an occurrence which UnitedHealth Group more than made up for by hiking premiums, and by sucking in 260,000 new customers in 2009 (January through June 11) through its public/private partnership with AARP. UnitedHealth Group pays to use the AARP logo for various of its UnitedHealth Group plans for people over 65, called "Ovations.".

The UnitedHealth Group vice president in charge of Ovations is Simon Stevens, a British national, who was Tony Blair's health-care expert from 1997 to 2004, during which time the infamous NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) was set up to dictate to the British National Health Service how to limit and deny medical treatment, which increased the death rate for millions. Ensconced at UnitedHealth world headquarters in Minnesota since January, 2007, Stevens is leading the charge for "NICE"-practices of Hitler-style care-cutting in the U.S. On May 27, Stevens issued a proposal to the Obama Administration, on how the government should cuts costs by limiting services under Medicare and Medicaid. Obama personally intervened last week to see that a NICE-type measure was inserted into the House health care "reform" bill.

The top four U.S. managed-care companies (in annual revenue for 2008) after UnitedHealth Group ($81 billion) are WellPoint ($61 billion), Aetna ($31 billion), Humana ($29 billion) and Cigna ($19 billion), which will announce their Second Quarter profits next week. Though technically there are about 1,000 private health insurance carriers in the U.S., these five mega-companies, along with a few others including Health Net Inc., and the for-profit "Blues" (formerly non-profit Blue Shield/Blue Cross), dominate all U.S. health-care insurance. In over 40% of all U.S. metropolitan areas, at least half of the local insurance policies are controlled by one sole insurer! It is estimated that fully $800 billion a year, out of the total annual U.S. health-care expenditures of $2.4 trillion, goes unnecessarily into HMO operations of all kinds—paperwork, stocks, salaries, etc.

UnitedHealth Group is on a binge for even more dominance. Yesterday it announced that it would buy the Northeast operations of rival Health Net Inc., for a sum in the range of $610 million. Its government-related revenue is set for a huge increase. On July 13, it announced landing a $21.8 billion contract from the Defense Department to "manage" a five-year contract for 3 million beneficiaries of its TRICARE military service HMO program. This will begin April 1, 2010; the transition is already underway.

UnitedHealth Group is, thus, the foremost private company privateering in "managing" implementation of government medical programs of all kinds—the very ones Obama wants to cut. Of the total 2008 revenue of UnitedHealth Group of $81.19 billion, $28.1 billion came from Ovations—its Medicare business; another $6 billion from "Americhoice," its Medicaid business, and with its new military and veterans contract, UnitedHealth Group may reach up to the same level as its current non-government, $41.8 billion commerical business.

In 2008, UnitedHealth Group's total revenue in the Second Quarter was $20.3 billion, on which its net income would have been higher (than $337 million), but for the fact that it to pay out $922 in lawsuit settlements for having fraudulently backdated stock options to benefit its senior executives.