Few companies in America are extra unloved than well being insurers. As gatekeepers of the world’s costliest health-care system, their miserly response to claims is a continuing supply of affected person unhappiness. Buyers, in contrast, have lengthy regarded them as soothingly secure bets: boring companies with regular returns. That’s not the case. UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, surprised buyers in April by reporting unexpectedly disappointing outcomes. Inside weeks it had changed its boss and scrapped its revenue forecast for the yr. Its newest outcomes, launched on July twenty ninth, provided extra distress. Since November UnitedHealth’s market worth has collapsed from $575bn to $240bn.
