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Targeted attacks on United Health?

Your favorite Getquin conspiracy theorist is back and it's starting to seem really strange to me what has been brewing against the $UNH (+2.74%) has been brewing against the company since the assassination attempt on the manager.

The media coverage was already conspicuous after the murder and in parts picked up on the basic anti-capitalist mood and hero worship for the murderer. New accusations against the company are now being made on a weekly basis, some of which are simply no longer properly substantiated.

Actually, the only solid news is that the manager is really no longer alive and that there really is an investigation by the DOJ into excessive Medicare billing. Those are two pieces of news that are really based on facts. In addition, there are about four times as many news items based on speculation and "I've heard", with source "trust me bro" or "anonymous whistleblower". Meanwhile, one piece of bad news follows the next and strange things happen that nobody really understands. Even the management clearly has no idea what's going on and where all these accusations are coming from.

What the Guardian has dug up here seems to be a story that is actually already old and brings to light a process that has already been completed. Why are they publishing it anyway? Well, it's quite simple. The Guardian would publish anything that somehow sheds a bad light on capitalism.

The fact is, of course, that a lot of shit happens in the healthcare system. But as has already been explained here in many places, the situation in Germany is sometimes much worse, except that here the state supports the insurers and mainly blocks and prevents cases from being investigated instead of dragging them before the Ministry of Justice or any investigative committees. The realization that insurers are extremely reluctant to pay for the health of their policyholders would be neither a secret nor newsworthy in this country. Anyone who has doctors, nurses etc. in their immediate family circle can listen to stories without pause about patients who died because the insurers avoided costs or about billing caprices that prevent patients from receiving adequate medical care.

In fact, it seems to me as if people with a lot of money are trying to drive UNH's share price into the ground so that they can get in cheaply themselves. The same thing has already happened to countless other companies. Before $NVDA (+0.33%) made its 10x, the share price was first lowered by -60% due to accusations by journalists. And it was precisely at this point that many US members of Congress happened to buy into the share. We are talking about a share that was available for around €10 per share due to scaremongering and has since fluctuated between €80 and €150.

Perhaps we should keep an eye on which insurers Nancy Pelosi and Co. will be going LONG with in the coming weeks.

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26 Comments

Nobody@Nobody_123

How you could be right with your reference to a few congressmen 😂

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Soprano@Soprano

@Nobody_123 No joke, the sell-off of UNH started in the US Congress in August 2024 and has now apparently stopped in April 2025. Congress is once again more efficient than the market

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Nobody@Nobody_123

@Soprano I know. Not because of UH now, but NVIDIA etc. in the recent past

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Nobody@Nobody_123

You probably already know the website https://www.capitoltrades.com?

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Soprano@Soprano

@Nobody_123 Yes, I just had a look and they really all sold before the share went down

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Jupp D.@JuppDupp

@Soprano reeks of insider trading

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Nobody@Nobody_123

@JuppDupp nananana, let's not use that bad word 😉

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Jupp D.@JuppDupp

@Nobody_123 Is there already double-speak here?

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Nobody@Nobody_123

@JuppDupp who knows

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Charmin@Charmin

@Soprano No, they didn't. There were even more buyers than sellers in the two months before the crash, as you can see in the 3-month chart. In February, there was large-scale selling, but nothing out of the ordinary.

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Soprano@Soprano

@Charmin It's about the members of Congress

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investment_pro_1912@investment_pro_1912

United healthace killed millions of people. Would never invest myself.

Worth 0!

Luigi is hero!

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KomischerVogel@UnRich

Where can you see where congressmen invest? capitoltrades, for example, seems to me to be very time-delayed.

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Nobody@Nobody_123

@UnRich realtime would be very nice 👍 but apart from capitoltraders, I don't know of anything better

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Soprano@Soprano

@UnRich This is delayed because, according to the law, MPs do not have to report their trades immediately and therefore do not do so

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Ryu K.@Haiku

It sounds like you are invested in United Health.

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Soprano@Soprano

@Haiku It's no secret

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Ryu K.@Haiku

@Soprano I never said that either.

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TotallyLost@TotallyLost

Does that mean you think the company is too cheap and the risks are already disproportionately priced in?

In the past, it has often been the case that a trigger was needed for many people and authorities to deal with a company.
ENRON was able to conceal its fraud for 16 years and was one of the largest companies in the S&P500.
In the case of Wirecard, it was more than 10 years and the same accusations were rehashed again and again until it finally went BOOM.

What I see is a company that has unusually high margins compared to the industry, where it is not entirely clear how they come about and with a management / board that has at least in the past put money before patients.
Even if they do a 180° turnaround now, it is questionable what skeletons they still have in the closet and what legal consequences this will have.

Add to that the regulatory uncertainty that Trump is bringing to the healthcare sector and the stock no longer looks so cheap.

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Nobody@Nobody_123

@TotallyLost 🤔 I don't find your argument about the margins and the comparison to Wirecard soooo off the mark either.....

I'm really excited to see how the story continues

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Soprano@Soprano

@TotallyLost But that's a completely different kind of accusation. If a company is defrauding its shareholders, then the utmost caution is required. If we were talking about unaudited financial statements or balance sheet manipulation, then I would be very, very careful.

But that's not the point here, and no such accusations are being made. It's more about UNH allegedly defrauding the state and its patients in order to generate additional returns for shareholders. That may well be reprehensible at first, but it does not undermine the company's responsibility towards its shareholders.

Cheating your customers is something that almost every B2C company and, without exception, every single insurance company does to a lesser or greater extent. Especially in the health insurance environment, please show me the one insurance company in the world where scamming policyholders is not an integral part of the core business.

Scamming the state is a bit trickier. Many companies do it somehow, but it's usually risky. The state literally invites companies to just mess around and see what happens. If this is discovered, there will of course be a slap on the wrist. I assume that this will cost a lot of money. But I don't know if it will be the end of the world. I don't have any say in the matter, but I would personally argue that the ex-CEO in particular should be held liable under civil law, instead of targeting the owners of the company with fines. After all, it's not their fault. Of course, any damages incurred, including interest, must be paid.

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TotallyLost@TotallyLost

@Soprano Why not both?
If the margin has been increased by denying people the treatment they need, then you should throw the huso in the hole and send a signal that others will be deterred.
And at the same time, the company should be financially penalized so that the owners / shareholders entitled to vote learn from this that it is best not to elect a board that puts short-term profit above long-term reputation and legal certainty.

Stupid for the shareholders, but as @Epi always says so well:
On the stock market you either win money OR experience.
But never both at the same time. 😁

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Soprano@Soprano

@TotallyLost Well, nobody gets arrested for defrauding the insured. You'd have to arrest insurance managers by the dozen, there are no harsh penalties for that. I was mainly referring to Medicare fraud, which is directed against the state.

Technically, it's not the shareholders' fault, they were only deceived by the management. Nevertheless, I can somehow see that punishment is necessary. Also as a deterrent.

Unfortunately, the world is not fair and as a customer you can't defend yourself against insurance companies. There are reasons why insurance fraud is a dedicated criminal offense, but insurance fraud is not. If you wanted to, you could really scrutinize every company. Do you think that all the people whose house burned down in the LA wildfires got their place back? Or the people from the Ahr valley? They'll still be waiting 100 years to see their belongings again.

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TotallyLost@TotallyLost

@Soprano No, it's not the shareholders' fault, unfortunately you can only punish a legal entity with fines or regulatory requirements.
These are both things that affect the share price.

But I think we'll get more clarity on that in the next few months.

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DonaldTruck@DonaldTruck

I wouldn't complain about that, but I don't necessarily see UNH at a market cap of NVIDIA 😅
(in the short term, of course)

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Soprano@Soprano

@DonaldTruck I don't think they'll make more than $600 in the foreseeable future, but even a simple double is a decent return for people who just happened to get in near the low.

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