Wednesday, February 3, 2016

UHC will lose over $500 million on Obamacare.

The Obamacare losses start to pile up for health insurance companies.  United Health Care expects to lose more than half a billion dollars on Affordable Care Act plans in 2016.  The Wall Street Journal reported last month:

UnitedHealth Group Inc. said its projected losses on the Affordable Care Act exchanges for 2016 deepened as enrollment grew despite the company’s efforts to reduce sign-ups.

The biggest U.S. health insurer said it is expecting losses of more than $500 million on its 2016 ACA plans, compared with previous projections that amounted to $400 million to $425 million in losses.

UnitedHealth had taken steps to pull back on its exchange business in anticipation of losses, including reducing marketing and slashing commissions to health-insurance agents. But enrollment nevertheless grew, widening the company’s exposure. UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley said the new projection reflected “prudence,” as the company sought to ensure it had covered all possible losses.....

But UnitedHealth’s move comes amid continued worries about the exchange business—concerns that the company jump-started in November, when it disclosed expected 2016 losses and said it would consider withdrawing from the health-law marketplaces, a decision expected to be made later this year.

Humana Inc. added another note of apprehension on Jan. 8, when it said it, too, would set aside a “premium deficiency reserve” at the end of 2015 to account for losses expected on its 2016 ACA business. The company hasn’t yet put a number on its projected results.

The Obama administration said it is taking steps to address one of the issues that insurers have blamed for their problems. On Tuesday, a federal official said in a blog post that regulators were moving to tighten the requirements for people to enroll in insurance through the federal HealthCare.gov site outside of official enrollment periods. Some justifications for such sign-ups were eliminated, and the blog post said officials would work to ensure enrollees comply with the rules. Insurers have complained that the guidelines have allowed people to wait to sign up when they expect to have health-care costs.

And so far, other major insurers haven’t publicly moved to create reserves against expected 2016 exchange losses. Aetna Inc. said last week it had losses on its exchange business in 2015 and was aiming for a “mid-single digits” profit in 2016, but likely wouldn’t “get all the way there.” Anthem Inc. said enrollment in its individual business came in lower than expected, and it expects its 2016 margins to be better than last year’s, though still not at its target range of 3% to 5%.

UnitedHealth said Tuesday its enrollment through the ACA exchanges was approximately 700,000. At the end of 2015, the figure was about 500,000. UnitedHealth said it had losses of about $475 million on its 2015 ACA-plan business.

Of its anticipated 2016 ACA-plan losses, UnitedHealth said it had booked $245 million in 2015, as part of a “premium deficiency reserve.”

The company in November said it expected $200 million in 2016 ACA-plan losses that it would book in 2015, as well as between $200 million and $225 million that would affect its results in 2016.

Before the problems with ACA business became fully clear, UnitedHealth had earlier decided to expand the number of markets where it offers exchange plans for 2016, a likely reason for its growing enrollment despite recent efforts to reduce sign-ups.

In addition, UnitedHealth said its efforts to improve results on the ACA plans, which included increased premiums and product tweaks such as withdrawing rich “platinum” plans, had helped squeeze its loss margin from around 15% to the “low double digits.”

Overall, UnitedHealth Group reported a profit of $1.22 billion, or $1.26 a share, for the fourth quarter of 2015, down from $1.51 billion, or $1.55, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, per-share profit declined to $1.40 from $1.64. Revenue increased 30% to $43.60 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.38 a share on revenue of $43.23 billion. During the quarter, UnitedHealth added 315,000 health-insurance customers, bringing its tally to about 46.4 million.... Rest of article.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel so sorry for the company whose profits are in the billions of dollars. They aren't losing money, but their profits are less. I guess having to actually pay the money they collect is too much of a strain for the stockholders.

Anonymous said...


February 3, 2016 at 11:23 AM = Bernie Sanders voter

Anonymous said...

It really is hard for the regular working people to understand how you can make billions in profit and still loose money. We should immediately demand our govt. give them more of our tax dollars.

Anonymous said...

The Christmas bonuses at UHC will be terrible this year.

PittPanther said...

Why would I interpret this article as anything other than UHC and Humana being poorly managed, while Anthem is being well-run? I'm supposed to blame Obama because UHC doesn't know how to competently run their business?

Anonymous said...

11:30. it's 11:23. I'm not voting for Sanders. (unless Enoch runs..). I'm now candidate less thanks to Rand leaving.

Anonymous said...

Obama, the Democrats and the liberal Republicans, including those from MS, will spend our tax money to repay them. They will get millions in contributions or kickbacks in return. Just wait.

Anonymous said...

you mean to tell me socialism failed?!?!? whodathunkit?

Anonymous said...

Cry me a river. From the article:

"Overall, UnitedHealth Group reported a profit of $1.22 billion, or $1.26 a share, for the fourth quarter of 2015"

Anonymous said...

@ 4:14 - a corporation CAN make a profit in one quarter and STILL fail to make a profit for the fiscal year. And, it can make a HUGE profit one year and then the next year, lose ALL that profit PLUS all profits gained for decades before that. Like when Hurricane Katrina wiped out 20 years of profits for several insurance company and actually put a few completely out of business.

Anonymous said...

This is why you need a single payer system available. Because these companies don't want the unprofitable burden of having to deal with undesirable sick people.

Cause getting sick is all your fault...

Anonymous said...

Is this the reason the MS Dept of Health just closed 9 offices and reduced office/combined offices throughout the state?

Just wait till UHC has to pay for the Zika Virus.

Heeerrrrreeeees Bernie said...

Because these companies don't want the unprofitable burden of having to deal with undesirable sick people.

Is it my responsibility to pay the bill for your sickness?

Anonymous said...

It takes a village......that the village is now lazy and bankrupt, well that has to be someone's fault. Cue the "fight, fight, fight for you" mantra of the left.

Anonymous said...

Sounds about right. The government forces people to buy your product and you still can't make it.



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