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From Bloomberg: The U.S.’s biggest health insurer is considering pulling out of Obamacare, a month after saying it would expand its presence in the program.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. is scaling back marketing efforts for plans it’s selling this year under the Affordable Care Act, and may quit the business entirely in 2017 because it has proven to be more costly than expected. It’s an abrupt shift from October, when the health insurer said it was planning to sell coverage in 11 new markets next year, bringing its total to 34. The company also cut its 2015 earnings forecast.

UnitedHealth said it suspended marketing its individual exchange plans and is cutting or eliminating commissions for brokers who sell the coverage.

UnitedHealth covers fewer than 550,000 people on the Obamacare exchanges. About 9.9 million people had insurance through the U.S.- and state-run insurance markets as of June 30.

“The company is evaluating the viability of the insurance exchange product and will determine during the first half of 2016 to what extent it can continue to serve the public exchange markets in 2017,” UnitedHealth said in a statement Thursday announcing the changes.

The company’s shares fell 5.6 percent to $110.66 at 9:36 a.m. in New York. Anthem Inc. and Aetna Inc., the two biggest health insurers after UnitedHealth, also declined, as did hospital stocks including HCA Holdings Inc. and Community Health Systems Inc.

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George Archibald
DevOps Engineer at PwC
I have grown to despise the entire industry. We pay all this money to Healthcare insurance, and what do they actually pay? about 35% of the asking price for any medical procedure. If I could get a 65% discount on my medical, I would only care about having catastrophic insurance. I still don’t know why these hospitals don’t offer a Sam’s Club type membership where you could pay about 1/4 of the premiums and get 50% off of prices they ask (which is way over-inflated to compensate for the negotiation they know will take place with these insurance robber barons).

At the end of each year, if you had an unfortunate year, they didn’t even come close to spending half your premiums on paying for healthcare expenses. This doesn’t even take into account that we pay nearly twice as mush a any industrialized country and rank near the bottom on almost every aspect.

I guess UnitedHeathCare is unhappy with the required 80% payout of healthcare expenses.

Cathy Dawson, RAC, MPH
Director, Clinical Submission PM at Pfizer
The economy of health insurance operates on two principles-

the healthy pay for the care provided to everyone; &

profit evolves from the difference in premiums vs payments

Insurance is inherently unfair; a gamble; and dependent on the buy-in of the people who likely do not need it.

In a profit seeking company, it will always be rigged to favor of smaller payouts and higher premiums.

Period. The “label” (ACA, NHS, Medicare, Aetna, what have you) is irrelevant.

Craig Doig-Bennetts
Freelance Agent
Another Obama mess!

Paul Vicha
Customer Support Manager at Varian Medical Systems
This is what controlling rising Healthcare costs means. Not always good but maybe necessary, we are all baring the burden. Fair?

Feng-Chi Ho
Global members
Affordation Act be affiliated with triangles relatives of those who are benefiting from people; government; insurance firm
among that whom to get merit and demerit points to close at win and loss!

John English, HCCP
Computer Validation & Data Integrity
May I suggest this is simply a ploy / bargaining gambit to allow them cover to raise their rates? On the Rx side for Part D, they have changed their Tier 4 drugs from $40 co-pay to ’40 per cent co-insurance’ – a staggering increase that has not attracted much comment. Possibly because it’s not “a rate increase?”

Stephen Griffin
Founder and CTO of InnovaQuartz and Cyclone Biosciences
I am curious, is this simply because the pool covered includes higher risk pre-existing condition that were ‘no quote’ before, with no rate adjustment permitted? Or are their other higher risk groups within the 10M marketplace participants as well? Anybody have data on this?

Christine Cowan, RN
Clinical Educator at Touchpoint Healthcare Solutions
They are smart it is way to expensive and not affordable to most

Thomas D. Crump
Central Region Sales Manager at Arjo Belgium
WWhhaatt???

Feng-Chi Ho
Global members
Improperly healthy care for insurance policy of public health and safety to be overpaying for highly rates of the bill that would be involved out the government of
USA in the some days in the future!

Abdelrahim alsayed ibrahim Khalil
CEO at WITG
For sale from the owner a complte radiology center:
* MRI Hitchi Elite
* Seimens 128 slice CT
* GE Mammo
* Panorama
* Siemns unit

John Jones
CEO of LabLynx, Inc and the Laboratory Informatics Institute
You know it. Taxes never go down. I tell a lie, actually my property tax went down during the financial mess in 2008. It has only now started to go back up. These are local taxes though.

Colin Tristram
Director and co-founder of HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd
Agreed John, the Independent is not really as independent as it likes to think! However, the original work it refers to is from a US based group the Commonwealth Fund. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror
As they say each to their own. The NHS is not without its problems. Mainly the current government dismantling it! It will be privatised before we know it. But I bet they won’t reduce our taxes.

John Jones
CEO of LabLynx, Inc and the Laboratory Informatics Institute
I agree, it is dependent on the country. The US has a different mind set and culture and that is driven by history, social makeup and demographics.

ACA is very controversial here and there is a growing gulf between two philosophical sides (conservatives vs. socialists). Societies based on the principals of individual freedom are complex and messy but they do work if the leadership does not try to ram things down the throats of the citizens. That usually causes the great divide we see happening today. ACA was rammed down the country’s throat (by the party in power) and a good portion of the population has resisted it. This is not good governance.

BTW, I love the article… It is full of irony. The publication is called the “Independent”… really?. A UK paper saying UK is number 1, imagine that, no bias there. I just have to laugh but the article is interesting.

Colin Tristram
Director and co-founder of HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd
Free healthcare as in it is free at the point of use. Of course it is paid for through tax. The NHS is an example. It often comes out as top or in the top ten in terms of cost efficient etc. It depends as a country whether you buy into such a system. The U.S. clearly doesn’t. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uks-healthcare-ranked-the-best-out-of-11-western-countries-with-us-coming-last-9542833.html

John Jones
CEO of LabLynx, Inc and the Laboratory Informatics Institute
Healthcare is vital to mankind as is energy and food. If we can get universal free healthcare, then I want universal free food and energy and water, while we are at it. It is this line of thinking that simply is not sound. Nothing is free. Every time you add a middle man to the process (government as an example or insurance companies) the costs go up to pay for the middle man. Maybe market efficiency will cover that cost but in the case of ACA, it is not covered and in fact it appears that not only is there added cost for paying the government but the market has become less efficient to the point that insurance companies are having to bail on it.

The repubs don’t need to fight ACA any longer. Just ignore it and it WILL go away.

Michael Lajeunesse
Vice President, Sales & Operations, Medical Materials, Inc.
There is no such thing as ‘Free’ Health Care or any other service. Everyone ultimately pays – one way or another.

Jeff Reals
Application Consultant RT Northeast U.S. Brainlab
Setting ideology aside, the Affordable Health Care Act was poorly constructed from the start and was never going to work. Simply bad business. The very approach taken to implement it was highly suspect and its demonstrated flawed structure at every turn.

Colin Tristram
Director and co-founder of HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd
It’s a shame that one of the richest countries in the world can’t have universal free healthcare.

John Jones
CEO of LabLynx, Inc and the Laboratory Informatics Institute
It is not sustainable without heavy subsidies paid for through increased taxes (direct or indirect). Congress will have to approve the extra subsidies needed and as long as the Republicans control or nearly control congress, that simply will not happen. Without the subsidy, the ACA will probably collapse. It will take a few years but without life support (money) it simply cannot continue.