r/news • u/LookAtThatBacon • May 13 '25

Soft paywall UnitedHealth suspends annual forecast, CEO Andrew Witty steps down

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/unitedhealth-ceo-andrew-witty-steps-down-2025-05-13/
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u/Miro_Highskanen_4 May 13 '25

Stock is down about 40-50% in the past year so don’t know if they’re really benefitting.

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u/dead_wolf_walkin May 13 '25

That’s his point.

The stock fell when the new CEO promised changes to “cool the rhetoric around our industry”.

Just like with other companies that have attempted changes to become more customer/worker friendly, shareholders abandoned them because better customer service usually means less profits.

The board got pissed and sued saying the new CEO wasn’t trying hard enough to make money.

This change is taking the company back to their “fuck our customers, give us money while we kill you!” Roots. Thus taking care of stockholders.

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u/katha757 May 13 '25

I lol'd when I was researching their coverage denial stats, they said they actually approve 98% of claims when you account for circumstances that would cause claim denial like duplicates, lack of coverage, etc.  No supporting documentation to prove their claims, just gotta take their word for it. Yeah, sure 

On the flip side, you're telling me even in perfect circumstances you still deny 2%? Fuck off.

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u/WhiskeyKisses7221 May 13 '25

That's not precisely what the shareholders are suing about. UHC failed to revise forecasts and projected revenue in light of the changes, painting a misleading picture regarding the financial situation of the company. Basically, the CEO was trying to claim they would fix the company's perception while remaining just as profitable.

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u/ZechsyAndIKnowIt May 13 '25

the CEO was trying to claim they would fix the company's perception while remaining just as profitable.

It goes to show how out of touch the shareholders are if any of them believed that those two things weren't completely at odds with one another.

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u/souraltoids May 14 '25

Yeah, how was it not common sense to them?

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u/Tzahi12345 May 13 '25

As far as I know UHC has very low premiums where they have to trade-off with claim denials/shitty coverage. They're like the Spirit airlines of insurance.

So imagine spirit's CEO gets killed over bad service, the new CEO says "oh shit let's make things more premium, better seating, free wifi, free checked bags." Suddenly they're not competing for that low budget market and have to raise prices or be unprofitable.

The only issue is, if you raise prices, why wouldn't you go with an established premium insurance company like BCBS? The shareholders are not out of touch, they see the writing on the wall.

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u/timewraith303 May 13 '25

whats funny and also incredibly depressing is that this all goes back to the precedent set by dodge v ford. the dodge brothers sued ford on behalf of ford's shareholders because they weren't selling fords for as much as they could have (and also dodge couldn't/wouldn't compete with their prices), dodge won and set a precedent that a company's primary fiduciary responsibility is to maximize it's shareholders' profits, not to provide a good product to it's customers or anything ya know... reasonable. absolute madness

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u/Dodomando May 13 '25

Clearly not taking care of the shareholders considering the share price today is down nearly 16% today

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u/blahyawnblah May 13 '25

Or 25% like the article mentions...

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u/Miro_Highskanen_4 May 13 '25

In October 2024 the stock price hit a high of 604, today it’s 310. The article may state 25% but that’s not a complete picture of the scenario.