{"id":454942,"date":"2026-02-07T18:43:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454942\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T18:43:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:43:34","slug":"unitedhealth-group-just-received-more-bad-news-heres-what-investors-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454942\/","title":{"rendered":"UnitedHealth Group Just Received More Bad News. Here&#8217;s What Investors Should Know."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it rains, it tends to pour.<\/p>\n<p>It has been an unfortunate past few years for one of the country&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/research\/largest-healthcare-companies\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">largest healthcare companies<\/a>, UnitedHealth Group (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nyse\/unh\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UNH<\/a> +2.89%). There has been no shortage of bad PR, a changing business landscape, and stock price struggles. In the past 12 months, UnitedHealth&#8217;s stock is down over 46% (as of market close on Jan. 30).<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, when it rains, it pours, and there could be more bad news heading UnitedHealth&#8217;s way regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/m\/medicare\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Medicare<\/a>. The Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed increasing payments to private insurers by only 0.09% in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re wondering how the market reacted to the news, look no further than the roughly 20% single-day drop its stock experienced on Jan. 27. But stock performance aside, here&#8217;s how that could have a real effect on UnitedHealth&#8217;s business.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"UnitedHealth Group Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770489812_613_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(2.89%) $7.76<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$276.31<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$251B<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$266.40 &#8211; $277.75<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$234.60 &#8211; $606.36<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>417K<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>8.7M<\/p>\n<p>Dividend Yield<\/p>\n<p>3.16%<\/p>\n<p>The relationship between UnitedHealth and Medicare<\/p>\n<p>Medicare is a government program that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/retirement\/2026\/01\/28\/are-you-falling-for-these-5-medicare-myths\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">provides health insurance<\/a> for people age 65 and older, and it has four parts: Parts A through D. CMS&#8217; proposal affects Part C (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/m\/medicare-advantage-plan\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Medicare Advantage<\/a>), which is private insurance run by companies like UnitedHealth.<\/p>\n<p>Medicare pays these companies a set monthly fee per enrolled member. And as the largest Medicare Advantage provider in the country &#8212; with more than 8.4 million customers at the end of 2025 &#8212; you can imagine a nice chunk of it goes to UnitedHealth.<\/p>\n<p>Around 38% of UnitedHealth&#8217;s 2025 revenue came from its Medicare and retirement segment ($171.3 billion). It was a 23% increase from 2024, outpacing its overall 16% revenue growth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/UNH\/chart\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img alt=\"UNH Revenue (Annual) Chart\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"441\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:720px\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7fff44b281ddf9449f69bd3afdd6a232.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/UNH\/revenues_annual\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">UNH Revenue (Annual)<\/a> data by <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">YCharts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the 0.09% increase becomes set in stone, UnitedHealth&#8217;s revenue growth would likely hit a major rough patch.<\/p>\n<p>We won&#8217;t know whether the proposal goes through before April 6, but you can be sure that UnitedHealth will put its lobbying muscle to use leading up to then.<\/p>\n<p>Taking a positive from the negatives<\/p>\n<p>The one positive from UnitedHealth&#8217;s recent plunge is that its stock looks much more attractive on valuation grounds.<\/p>\n<p>As of market close on Jan. 28, UnitedHealth was trading around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/f\/forward-pe\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">16.6 times its projected earnings<\/a>, which is below its average for the past year and about 3.5 points below its level just a few days earlier on Jan. 23.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/UNH\/chart\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img alt=\"UNH PE Ratio (Forward) Chart\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"441\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:720px\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5e22c4bbee4f2bc4b5d72cd7ffd9fa15.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/UNH\/forward_pe_ratio\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">UNH PE Ratio (Forward)<\/a> data by <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">YCharts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The low valuation alone doesn&#8217;t make UnitedHealth a buy, but the market&#8217;s response seems like an overreaction. UnitedHealth has some kinks to work out, no doubt, but it&#8217;s still one of the country&#8217;s most essential businesses. If you&#8217;re in it for the long haul, it&#8217;s trading at a much more attractive entry point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it rains, it tends to pour. It has been an unfortunate past few years for one of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-454942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}