The health insurance business is a mess, and no health-insurance company is a bigger mess than UnitedHealth Group
UNH
- 1.61%
. But with its shares down 17% this week, much of that mess may now be reflected in the stock price.
The bad news started on Monday, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, proposed that the net price increase for Medical Advantage insurance premiums should be 0.09% in 2027, well below the 5% many had expected. That would be a big hit to future.
This is what peoples health has been reduced to. A bunch of Wall Street brokers who circle in anticipation of how much money they can extract from federal and state programs, unsuspecting employers etc.