Well fancy that!
UnitedHealth Group is warning that it may pull out of the Obamacare (a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act) exchanges after 2016. Why? Because enrollment has been low and the people who have enrolled have tended to use a lot of healthcare, which of course costs United lots of money.
If this doesn't strike you as unseemly then let me explain. With great privilege comes great responsibility. Noblesse oblige, if you like. The greater the privilege the greater the responsibility.
In case you missed it, UnitedHealth does have great privilege because the ACA laws have been written directly in its favor and those of the other health insurance companies. U.S. citizens living inside the United States must buy approved health insurance coverage or pay a fine.
As far as I know, there are no other businesses in the U.S. which have laws written so that everyone in the country is required to buy their product or service. You don't have to buy auto insurance if you don't have a car. You aren't required to purchase a subscription to a business magazine like Forbes. You aren't required to purchase my writing services (although I promise you'd feel better if you did.)
But I do have to buy health insurance, whether it be from UnitedHealth or some other approved health insurance company. So do you.
The question should now be, if we have to buy health insurance, whether it is actually "affordable" or not, shouldn't United and the other insurers be required to provide it, whether doing so is profitable or not? If the health insurers don't have to provide the coverage it seems totally unreasonable to require us, the American people, to buy it.
UnitedHealth media relations did not immediately response to a request for comment on this story.
