Insurer’s warning signals troubles with Obamacare: #tellusatoday

If UnitedHealth stops participating in the Obamacare exchanges, as it warned it might do, more than a half-million people would be affected. Letter to the editor:

“UnitedHealth warned investors that it would reap $425 million less in revenue during the fourth quarter than it had previously expected,” Paste BN’s article stated (“UnitedHealth warns it may exit Obamacare plans”).

This statement comes after the article stated UnitedHealth may pull out of Obamacare exchanges after “low enrollment and high usage cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.”

A better description would be UnitedHealth may pull out of Obamacare after realizing it won’t make as many hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for its investors as it anticipated. This warning provides further proof that the industry is a money-grab first and supports the health-related needs of people second.

Jef Rietsma; Kalamazoo, Mich.

TAVIS SMILEY: Sparking a new civil rights movement

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

UnitedHealth, like most insurance companies, wants to cover only people who are healthy. They want the money from premiums but not to pay for people who use their coverage, and that is greed at its worst.

— Joe Damico

Before you accuse UnitedHealth of greed, recognize that every type of business, even one designed to help people with their health care, has to operate in the black to continue helping them effectively. It can’t dismiss the need to do that no matter how much you’d like to act as if making a profit isn’t necessary.

— Francesco DiGiovanni

The main problem is that health care shouldn’t be a “for profit” industry.

— Carl Lewis

I blame those who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. Far too many people want something for nothing.

I should not have to pay for people too lazy or unwilling to have health insurance, but I am paying for them through my taxes and increased insurance rates and reduced coverage.

— Harvey Bumfelder

We asked what followers thought about UnitedHealth saying it might pull out of Obamacare exchanges. Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

To private insurers, profits are greater than patients! Time for a public option, which is something we should have done from the start.

— @ColleenKraft

Let Obamacare collapse. Hopefully, more insurance companies will follow suit.

— @gardnerks

It is probably just a market adjustment.

— @WillieRWilliam1

I am not surprised. Obamacare is an unsustainable model.

— @notatrophywife

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion or #tellusatoday.