UnitedHealth will continue to offer preventive care with no co-payments, dependent coverage until age 26, elimination of the lifetime cap on policies, elimination of rescissions to individual policies except in the case of fraud, and a simpler appeals process.
The company will not extend coverage to children up to the age of 19 with pre-existing conditions, another key provision of Obamacare, saying, “ One company acting alone cannot take that step, so UnitedHealthcare is committed to working with all other participants in the health care system to sustain that coverage.”
A cynic might point out that none of the provisions that UnitedHealth will continue to support really costs the company much, if anything. If UnitedHealth or any other insurance company had really believed that Obamacare would hurt their business the company would have made a lot of noise.
Health insurers got a pretty good deal from President Obama and they know it. Expect the rest of the flock to follow UnitedHealth’s lead.
Paul Ausick