Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH)
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UNH Forum Topics
- All Comments on UNH
- General Discussion on UNH
- Time to Rethink Our View of Private Health Insurers? [view article]
- Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
- 15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
- Seth Klarman, Meryl Witmer and Marty Whitman - Q2 2008 Portfolio Moves [view article]
- Glenview Capital's Larry Robbins Likes HMOs, UK Pubs [view article]
- Five Strategies to Survive the Markets [view article]
- Earnings Preview: UnitedHealth Group [view article]
- Buying Healthcare Stocks for an Obama Presidency [view article]
- Why B/E Is More Important than P/E to Health Insurers [view article]
- Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [view article]
- Barron's Interview: Six Winners No Matter Where We Go From Here [view article]
- Successful Investing Is Not About Predicting the Market [view article]
loading ...Recent UNH Articles
- Time to Rethink Our View of Private Health Insurers?
- The National Market Is Not the Savior of State Regulated Private Health Insurance
- Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits
- 15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update
- 2008 Q2 Portfolio Holdings: Berkowitz, Rodriguez & Pabrai
- Seth Klarman, Meryl Witmer and Marty Whitman - Q2 2008 Portfolio Moves
- Highly Defensive PerformIdex: 35 Stocks to Outpace the Markets
- Why B/E Is More Important than P/E to Health Insurers
- Buying Healthcare Stocks for an Obama Presidency
- 'The Market's Down, Not Doomed': Critiquing Lee Cooperman's Barron's Interview
- Full List of Articles »
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Time to Rethink Our View of Private Health Insurers? [view article]
Selene: you are mostly right, but not 100%. My employer also puts money into our FSA if we complete a health survey every year. The amount doubled this year. So, yes, *some* employer funds can be included.Whisper: your solution is often touted by grandstanding politicians, which is enough to make me skeptical (only slightly tongue-in-cheek). Seriously, it sounds great in theory but won't work for the rank-and-file. Look at today's DOW drop-- stocks across the board were eviscerated. And that's just one bad day in a long steady decline. Plus, the average consumer really has no clue how to invest. Also, savings accounts are a joke-- paying about 3% if you're lucky compared to the real inflation rate of 10% or more (remember, the figures the government use for CPI leave out energy costs, housing, and conveniently, health care). Bottom line: no savings in savings. Just an illusion.
The real solution is to go back to a not-for-profit model across the board. Yes, there were inefficiencies, but they sure the heck beat the monstrosity we've allowed to grow over the past decades. Give me a church-owned-and-run hospital full of cranky old nuns over the nightmare that for-profit hospitals have become... Reply
The Wind
Time to Rethink Our View of Private Health Insurers? [view article]
Sounds like it would be smarter to set aside that same amount in a stock or etf, or even just a savings account, then into something more reliable like a CD, and keep it building so that when you need it, you have it. I'm not putting any of my pay into anything that I can't control or at least withdraw from. ReplyTime to Rethink Our View of Private Health Insurers? [view article]
"Employers were supplementing the high deductable plans with employer funded health savings accounts, making the deductables irrelevant from the employees’ perspective."A clarification, from someone who actually is on this kind of health plan. What happens is that the employee has the option to direct some portion of their pay into the tax-free Health Savings Account (HSA). This account is "funded by the employer" only in the sense that the employee's salary is funded by the employer. For all practical purposes, the employee is paying into it.
Then the employee can use HSA to pay for healthcare expenses not covered by your insurance, such as co-pays and deductible. However, even with the bump-up for the HSA being tax-free, it comes down to a cost being shifted from insurer to insured employee. The employee does NOT perceive the costs as irrelevant!
What's more, in every one of these I've participated in, HSA is "use it or lose it" each year. If at the end of the year you've been healthy and haven't spent your whole HSA, you just lose whatever chunk of your salary you directed to the HSA! Obvious incentive to underfund your HSA (even with the tax effect) from what you think you will spend, especially if you're in good health.
Someone with a high deductible would probably consider putting less than the deductible into the HSA and just hoping for the best.
I've never understood who this goofy system was supposed to benefit, except whoever is administering it (usually company HR dept) and whoever keeps any unused balance in HSA (I guess that's the employer too?) Reply
Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
We have many problems in this area. Primary-care physicians are a vanishing breed.The poor guy who doesn't have coverage gets billed at arate that is often double what a "Plan" would be billed because of negotiated rates.
New treatments (read complicated and thus expensive) are being developed at a rapid rate.
85% of your health-care expenditures occur in the last 15 years of your life.
We need a thoughtful honest debate to find the best solutions.
Small countries like Denmark can manage national health-care, but in larger countries it usually turns into a disaster. Look at Canada.
A partisan political "solution" won't "git er dun.' Reply
Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
The author does a good job of telling half the story. While I tend to agree that there should be an insurer of last resort or a high-risk pool available in all states, the idea of forcing guaranteed issue without mandatory covereage is part of what makes insurance so expensive. It's impossible to produce affordable rates when people can go without coverage when they are healthy, but expect guaranteed issue subsidized coverage for when they are not. Insurers would gladly accept all risks if it truly mean ALL risks, not just unhealthy risks for whom it is now financially convenient. ReplyKeep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
Wadhamite.....sadly, your comments are very indicative of public perception of these issues. Those of you who are 'totally free enterprise' types on everything need to understand that not everything can be solved by 'totally free markets'.I worked in corporate health insurance for 20 years. It is a different animal 'totally'. Our drinking water, if totally provided by a free market, would be very unjustly distributed - the best to the rich, the poor quality to the poor.
Regulation/oversight/c... has to be given those goods that the public need for 'life, and pursuit of happiness'........not threat of bankruptcy due to a greed-filled, broken system as is healthcare financing that leaves 50m uninsured because they cannot afford $1,200 a month for family coverage.
You better hope the gov't gets more involved in healthcare.....or one day your employer will 'reduce you at age 55' and you'll have to go find your own quotes. Then you'll understand - just like my 56 yr old brother now understands what I have been telling him for years.
Now, he is a true disciple of a national healthcare plan. Reply
Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
I am troubled by the words "regulatory approval" . . . like, who is really in charge? A total free-enterprise system would sort out such conversions and competitions. With regulators, the picture becomes murky in a hurry, and those who want the government out of health care feel increasingly compromised. Reply0
Keep the Remaining Blue Cross Plans Non-Profits [view article]
WellPoint ruined the great reputation and decency of what was Blue Cross Blue Shield. Corruption, office politics exeeding that of Washington, and very poor management have taken a good company to ruins. No ethics, no problem. Steal from the stockholders, the employees and don't think twice about it. Those multimillion dollar bonuses given to the CEO and others are coming directly from premium dollars. Greed is the name of the game. Politicians point to high healthcare costs--why not start with the "bonuses" given to some worthless executives who have taken the company into the ground? Anyone with any intelligence and ETHICS is scooted out the door. The remaining "management team" couldn't spell cat if one spotted them the "c" and the"a". How about oursourcing the management as WellPoint has done with claims and other departments? What a thrill to call about a claim and get someone who can't even speak English. WellPoint can sit on it and rotate! Reply15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
Do some managers consistently buy shares for more than they are worth? If so, do they make money in the long term? Reply15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
valueinvestor123 & Jake2 - please visit my blog and read a few posts before making such statements.Fox - I simply picked 10 funds that have historically been considered value investors - and I define that as buying something for less than it is worth.
User 164258 - you are correct and the glitch is fixed on my blog. . .
Reply
15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
I guess I am dumb like you. I think seeing what some pretty bright people are buying and selling is a pretty good place to get ideas to do my own research. It also provides a good benchmark to compare to my own portfolio.You should do some further research on whether Buffett sold COP. I saw another post that he, in fact, got an expemption from the SEC to not report is position in that stock. Therefore, it simply droppped from the list and not sold. Given that COP is pretty cheap compared to the rest and that he and Gates were up in Canada looking at oil sands, it seems unlikely that he just punched out of this position in one quarter Reply
15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
I don't see much "value" in this kind of blanket value listing. Would prefer something more akin to e-valu-ating individual stocks, industries, etc., rather than, "Wither the hedge herd, mate?". Reply15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
I would like to know how you define "value" in the context that you are using it. I see one of the funds you mention has a position in First Solar. Reply15 Value Hedge Funds - Portfolio Update [view article]
Meb is a pretty bright guy and synthesis of other concepts can be very useful. ReplySeth Klarman, Meryl Witmer and Marty Whitman - Q2 2008 Portfolio Moves [view article]
Lets assume the worst and that is the Fannie and Freddie stock go bust to zero, the government take the GSE's, so what? are we going to h*** for that? are the mortgages in their books go bust? are we going to crush? the answer is no! all those mortgages in their books will automatically be backed up by the government and even be rated as triple A, that will upgrade the books of all of those holding them into CDOs, MBS, SIVs and cause massive write ups! so what is the nonsense in here? that would be the best case scenario for bond and mortgages insurers, I am sure there are many of them praying for the government to take over the books of Freddie and Fannie. Reply