BREAKING: UnitedHealth Bleeds. CEO Witty Steps Down.

Ironically, it wasn't the FTC, the DOJ, or Congress that finally clipped UnitedHealth's wings. It was Trump, rambling about drug price cuts. UNH stock is down 47% in a month.

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My readers know—I’ve said it for years:

Whether it’s the FTC, the DOJ, or Congress, it’s high time to break up UnitedHealth and save American healthcare.

But while the regulators sat on their hands, Trump blurts out a half-baked pricing threat, and boom— that kills UNH?

You can’t make this shit up.

UNH is down 16% this morning, and 47% off its April 11 intraday high of $606.36. That’s one of the worst 22-day runs in the company’s history.

https://youtube.com/shorts/oAl6d6cuHxA

And this morning UnitedHealth’s CEO Sir Andrew Witty steps down.

Something tells me this won’t be the last time we hear from him. The man’s got a trail of damage behind him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time we see him, it’s in court.

Here is a list of some of the atrocities UnitedHealth has committed against American healthcare, all with no or little consequences:

🩸 $50B Medicare upcoding fraud.

🩸 An upcoding scheme using the fraudulent QuantaFlo device that netted UNH $1B in a single year—from just one device, for just one diagnosis (PAD)—causing serious harm to countless patients with false-positive PAD tests at 8(!) times the normal rate! Semler Scientific—UnitedHealth’s medical upcoding device dealer—offered the DOJ a laughable $30M settlement.

🩸 UnitedHealth has committed multiple pharmacy drug frauds through its Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM), OptumRx, but always magically “settled” for a tiny penalty. (Source: Ohio Capital Journal.)

🩸 Given its unprecedented monopoly and lobbying power, it’s no surprise that UnitedHealth has the highest risk score (RAF) in the health insurance industry. This means UnitedHealth can charge Medicare over $10,000 per patient per year more than its competitors.

🩸 UnitedHealth has discriminated against African Americans in its AI algorithms. (Sources: Wall Street Journal, Why Is Shitty, Dangerous Health AI Being Pushed by Multi-Billion-Dollar Conglomerates?)

🩸 UNH forced staff to follow Optum’s NaviHealth AI (“nH Predict”) to deny Medicare patients post-acute rehab. UNH made billions. The settlement? $20.25M. That’s million—with an M. (Sources: The Minnesota Star Tribune, Stat News, Why Is Shitty, Dangerous Health AI Being Pushed by Multi-Billion-Dollar Conglomerates?)

🩸 UnitedHealth constantly denies coverage to chronically ill patients. (Source: Propublica.)

🩸 Not only was UnitedHealth not penalized for one of the worst cyber attacks in American healthcare history on its subsidiary, Change Healthcare, in February and April 2024, it benefited tremendously. UnitedHealth has never established best practices for data security. They have no incentives to do so. During the Change disaster, UnitedHealth has been suffocating medical practices by not reimbursing them, citing the paralyzed payment system. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 80% of practices suffered revenue losses, 55% used personal funds to stay afloat, and many shut down—later scooped up by Optum (another UNH subsidiary!) at fire-sale prices. How convenient.

🩸 The UnitedHealth lobby appears to be just too strong for the DOJ to handle. The DOJ has failed to sue UHC 12 times before, due to court blocks. The DOJ filed a 13th antitrust suit in November 2023. (Source: The Examiner.)

🩸 UnitedHealth executives, including the CEO, Andrew Witty, were accused of insider trading. They allegedly sold over $100 million worth of UNH stock in October 2023 before the DOJ announcement went public. (Source: Bloomberg.) The reason why Andrew Witty thinks he is above the law and can commit insider trading is because he has seen the worst-case scenario play out in front of him. In 2007, the SEC (not the DOJ - so no jail time already) went after then-CEO of UnitedHealth, William W. McGuire, accusing him of insider trading. To the SEC’s credit, they went hard after him, but the case was still settled for a whopping $1 billion (with all the penalties and returned stock options), without admitting any guilt, of course. So yes, it was a tough day for Mr. McGuire, as roughly half of his wealth was wiped out, but unlike those much less affluent defendants in similar cases, he doesn’t have a criminal record, can work anywhere, and his lifestyle didn’t suffer a bit. In fact, a few years later, he bought a professional soccer team, Minnesota United FC. People don’t realize how crazy rich these executives have become from their companies’ paychecks, mainly due to equity-based compensation.

🩸 UnitedHealth has not updated the primary care physicians’ reimbursement fee schedule since 2018 despite raising insurance premiums by 22%. (Source: KKF.)

🩸 And, of course, the latest—UnitedHealth manipulated its earnings (or, to be precise, failed to properly adjust them) and now faces a class-action lawsuit. (Source: Benzinga.) As a result, UNH suspended its annual forecast this morning. (Source: CNBC.)

For the full list of UnitedHealth abuses against U.S. healthcare, please check out this UnitedHealth Abuse Tracker brilliantly compiled by Matt Stoller and the American Economic Liberties Project.

Need perspective?

🕵️‍♂️ FTX fraud: $8 billion. Sam Bankman-Fried got 25 years.

🕵️‍♂️ Madoff: $65 billion. Life sentence.

🕵️‍♂️ UnitedHealth: $50+ billion... and counting. Zero consequences — until today.

Why the insatiable hunger for more cash through fraud? Simple. The need for greed is in monopoly DNA—whatever it takes: stifling innovation, killing startups, imposing racial biases, committing fraud…

UnitedHealth has grown so big that there is no more room for the insurance business to grow any further. It had to acquire other businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Change Healthcare, LHC Group, Amedisys, Optum Health, Optum Insight, Optum Rx, EMISAR, Optum Financial (including Optum Bank). In fact, the non-insurance business now comprises 28% of the company.

Source: OpenSecrets.org

Not only does UnitedHealth have some of the most powerful lobbyists in the world, but they’ve also apparently operated above the law.

UNH’s corporate defense lawyers have adopted a legal strategy so aggressive that even the mob never dared to try it—when facing litigation from the government, they turn around and file misconduct charges against the attorneys bringing the charges.

(Source: BIG newsletter, by Matt Stoller.)

It’s astonishing how Witty and UNH have brought American healthcare to its knees. They brazenly dismiss every single fraud lawsuit, settling each for trivial amounts.

The level of corruption and indifference at UnitedHealth is unfathomable.

Here’s what happens next: UNH lobbyists get their one-on-one with Trump, and things get ironed out—as things usually do in the monarchy that the United States of America has become.

But maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps this marks the beginning of the end for UnitedHealth. Honestly, I don’t care how a monopoly dies—as long as it does. Antitrust laws in this country are failing badly, but today is still a great day for American healthcare. Let's celebrate! 🎉🥂

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👉👉👉👉👉 Hi! My name is Sergei Polevikov. In my newsletter ‘AI Health Uncut’, I combine my knowledge of AI models with my unique skills in analyzing the financial health of digital health companies. Why “Uncut”? Because I never sugarcoat or filter the hard truth. I don’t play games, I don’t work for anyone, and therefore, with your support, I produce the most original, the most unbiased, the most unapologetic research in AI, innovation, and healthcare. Thank you for your support of my work. You’re part of a vibrant community of healthcare AI enthusiasts! Your engagement matters. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏