Comment by gretch
1 day ago
According to this source, united healthcare profits were $14B in 2024. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/unitedhealth-unh-2024-re...
So yeah, money out not matching money in is exactly the problem.
1 day ago
According to this source, united healthcare profits were $14B in 2024. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/unitedhealth-unh-2024-re...
So yeah, money out not matching money in is exactly the problem.
So a bit under 5% per the rest of the numbers in that link.
I can't find the detailed breakdown for 2025, but in 2024, they took in $308bn in premiums and paid out $264bn in medical costs. So even ignoring all of the downstream and systemic problems caused by insurance existing as a for-profit entity, they're taking 14% off the top just to exist as a middle-man.
https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/content/dam/UHG/PDF/invest...
> they took in $308bn in premiums and paid out $264bn in medical costs ... they're taking 14% off the top just to exist as a middle-man.
In 2023, they had a 0.8% profit margin[0]. 9 billion dollars in a trillion dollar industry.
Ignoring the disingenuous framing ("taking off the top" including how much they pay their employees), how does that compare to other industries?
[0]https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/2024-annual-hea...
2 replies →
About half of those profits were from the Optum side of the business, not from insurance.
If you’ve had UHC you’d know very well that Optum is intimately tied to their insurance business. UHC just “administers the plan” while Optum controls plan decisions. So when there’s a problem, which there always is with every claim more complicated than a PCP visit, you get bounced between both companies for hours until you find someone willing to take responsibility for answering questions.