Aimed Alliance Addresses UnitedHealth's Threats To Withdraw from the Marketplace

Competition Continues to Shrink While Health Care Prices Continue to Rise

November 25, 2015 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – The nation's largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the marketplace exchanges after 2016 – forcing more than a half million people to find other coverage – claiming that low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars.

Aimed Alliance's Director of Public Policy, Stacey L. Worthy, sat down with Liz Wheeler of One America's The Tipping Point to discuss UnitedHealth's threat. Ms. Worthy noted a trend of insurers using unreasonable methods to protect their high profits, including passing costs on to consumers in the form of premium hikes, denying access to life-saving treatments, and leaving the marketplace altogether. View the full interview here.

"UnitedHealth Group's departure would leave consumers with one less option as competition continues to shrink and health care prices continue to rise," said Stacey L. Worthy, Director of Public Policy at Aimed Alliance. "Yet, a glance at the company's third quarter report released last month showed an increase in revenue of 27 percent year-over-year to $41.5 billion. This discrepancy is just another reason why transparency in the health insurance industry is so vital."

The Alliance for the Adoption of Innovations in Medicine (Aimed Alliance), a not-for-profit organization working to improve health care in the United States, has released a report detailing the true drivers of health care costs in the United States, which details the following points:

Health insurers, industry-wide, have engaged in deceptive practices to hide profits.

Insurers seek billions in federal aid, while simultaneously, premiums and deductibles are skyrocketing.

While consumers are pay more for health care, they are getting less in terms of value and quality.

State and federal legislators must enact new laws to prevent the profiteering practices of health insurers.

To read more about the rising costs of health care, read Aimed Alliance's report here.

The Alliance for the Adoption of Innovations in Medicine (Aimed Alliance) is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve health care in the United States by supporting the development and utilization of novel, evidence-based treatments. For more information, visit www.AimedAlliance.org and follow @AdoptInnovation on Twitter.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Stacey L. Worthy, contact Ryan Hughes with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at rhughes@sbpublicaffairs.com, (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920.