Summary
Three UnitedHealth-owned companies—HealthMarkets and its subsidiaries—were ordered to pay over $165 million for deceptive practices in Massachusetts between 2012 and 2016.
A Suffolk County judge ruled they violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act by misleading consumers into buying unnecessary supplemental insurance, with agents trained to obscure costs.
The penalties include $50.1 million in restitution and $115.1 million in civil penalties, the largest ever under the state’s consumer protection law.
UnitedHealthcare plans to appeal.
Fuck UnitedHealthcare!
Oh great, they have to pay a fine that’s a fraction of the profit they make per day. That’ll teach ‘em!
Worst yet, it’s probably tax deductible.
Luigi did the unambiguously correct thing.
0.7% of their 2024 net income btw.
Didn’t they generate $400billion in revenue? This is barely a rounding error.
And that’s just this quarter… What they made over the course of those 4 years is in the trillions. What they were ordered to pay in restitution was maybe around 0.0025% of their total earnings.
$165 million
Would you believe this is only 0.04% of UHC’s total revenue in 2024? What a wild fucking system we live in that 165 MILLION DOLLARS is just a slap on the wrist…
And they’ll increase premiums across the board by 1% permanently to cover the cost and increase profit. The line must go up.
