[dbussone]

For those on this thread who think the insurance companies are just out to get every penny they can out of your pocket, the following might surprise you:

"UnitedHealth Group has lost $425 million from health plans sold on the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces, which forced the company to lower its profit projections for the rest of the year. The company suggested it may exit the exchanges altogether by 2017.

It's a potentially huge blow to President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law. The exchanges have been viewed as the primary conduit to expand health coverage to middle-class Americans. If a major publicly traded insurer bows out, others may follow and destabilize the entire individual market.

“We cannot sustain these losses,” UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley said on an investor call Thursday.

The $425 million shortfall from exchange products includes $275 million that UnitedHealth expects to lose from its 2016 plans. There's also another $200 million to $225 million in potential exchange losses that can't be booked until next year, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based health insurer and services conglomerate said.

UnitedHealth will evaluate its public exchange status during the first half of next year before deciding if it will leave the market. It has also “pulled back” significantly on marketing its 2016 plans and cut commissions to insurance brokers to minimize enrollment growth.

It's a swift turn of events for the nation's largest health insurer, which only a month ago touted its exchange strategy and said it was expanding into 11 new markets next year.

Healthcare stocks have been taking a beating Thursday morning in light of UnitedHealth's announcement. UnitedHealth's shares were down 3.6%. Anthem's stock plummeted 6.8%, while Aetna lost 4%. Hospital chains HCA and Community Health Systems were down 5.2% and 8.3%, respectively."

Just released by Modern Healthcare.