UnitedHealth Promises to Return Obamacare Profits to Consumers But Competitors Say the Policies Are Money-Losers

Facing pressure from President Trump over pricing, the largest health insurer in the country says it will return to consumers any profits it makes this year on its Affordable Care Act policies.“Though UnitedHealthcare is a relatively small participant in the individual ACA market, we will voluntarily eliminate and rebate our profits this year for these coverages, as Congress continues towork toward more long-term solutions,” the UnitedHealth Group chairman and chief executive officer, Stephen J. Hemsley, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Thursday.Most of United’s customers are covered under other policies but it has about 1 million Obamacare customers.Mr. Trump has accused health insurance companies of making huge profits off of marketplace health policies even though companies that offer the plans have profit caps of 20 percent under the law.Other health insurance executives testified that they had actually lost money on the plans last year and said they would not have any profits to return.Republicans on the committee attacked the executives over care denials and their salaries. Congressman Buddy Carter questioned CVS Health’s chairman, David Joyner, about his compensation.“This past year, my compensation was $17 million,” Mr. Joyner said. “Of which $1.1 million was base salary. The rest was long-term incentives.” Mr. Joyner said he returned his bonus back to the company’s employee relief fund to help CVS employees who faced financial hardships.Mr. Trump unveiled his “Great Healthcare Plan” last week, although it was short on concrete details. “The government is going to pay the money directly to you. It goes to you, and then you take the money and buy your own healthcare,” Mr. Trump said. “The big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win.”The president said, last month, that he would convene a meeting of health insurance executives to urge them to lower premiums for hard-pressed American consumers.Health insurance premiums are of rising concern to many Americans, including more than 20 million who face steep increases now that Biden-era Obamacare subsidies have expired. Many marketplace consumers are seeing huge premium increases due to the end of the temporary subsidies that were tied to the pandemic.Democrats unsuccessfully fought to make the subsidies permanent as part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats then forced a partial government shutdown over the issue but eventually caved without getting the extension.Some Republicans fear voters are going to blame them for the rising premiums, giving Democrats an issue that could help them take control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.The House passed a bill this month, with some Republican support, to extend the subsidies for three years. The Senate has not taken up the bill and its future there is far from certain.

UnitedHealth Promises to Return Obamacare Profits to Consumers But Competitors Say the Policies Are Money-Losers

UnitedHealth Promises to Return Obamacare Profits to Consumers But Competitors Say the Policies Are Money-Losers

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