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Trends, Big Numbers, and Risks: Lessons from UHC’s Earnings

It's July and that means earnings season. We get a view of the workings of UnitedHealth Group ("UHC"), the "diversified health care company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone." We've all carried a United Healthcare card at one point. UHC is the largest healthcare company in the US and has a long list of impressive stats: over $200B in revenue, 27M people enrolled in commercial plans, close to 10M Medicare Advantage and Med ...

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Why Employer-Provided Healthcare is Here to Stay

No economist, junior high student, employee, or small business owner* in the United States thinks healthcare should be tied to employment. Ask around. It's equally unpopular across the political spectrum. But we have it, and it's not by accident, but rather an unintended consequence of the 1942 Stabilization Act. The WW2 era Act led to wage freezes. Unable to raise salaries, and thanks to a later IRS ruling, employers added healthcare coverage as tax-free compensation. It made sense to employers ...

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The Case For Healthcare and Financial Literacy

12% and 33%. According to a 2015 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, only 12% of adults have a proficient state of healthcare literacy. That's why goals to eliminate waste in the US healthcare system, to promote consumerism, and to shop for care, need to start with the front door, be easy and intuitive, include skin in the game from the consumer, and promote healthcare literacy. What's on the line? The healthcare literate use fewer services--albeit some of this may be due ...