UHC have all kinds of plans, both cheap and expensive, and their denial rates are high, regardless of what plans are purchased.
So why are people going with UHC?
EDIT I want to reply to 2 replies with the same comment, so I'll put it here - if the companies are paying & buying known-dodgy insurance, then why aren't they going with a cheap option?
What this means is that the most choice Americans face is whether to take the high or low deductible option their plan offers and whether they take the single or family plan.
If your company picks UHC and you don’t have a spouse whose job has something better, then you’re getting UHC or nothing
Most get it through work, and most areas have only a handful that count local docs as in-network. If you're lucky, work might offer a choice between two insurers.
Fortunately for health insurance companies, people who need to take the cheapest healthcare could rarely fight back.
Hint - the people with the fewest resource are the least able to fight back.
UHC shouldn't have margins. Healthcare and profit are a deadly combination.
I've had weird experiences online arguing (about shoplifting, as it happened) with people (I assume teenagers) on Discord who seemed to have a genuine belief that buying insurance was a magic positive-sum process for dealing with damages. They hadn't/didn't make the link that the insurer pays out approximately what they take in from premiums. That experience applied to medical insurance leaves me with a strong suspicion that UHC gets a lot of hate because they are the cheap option and people haven't cottoned on to the sad reality that if they want their claims paid out they can't go with the provider that is cheap because it denies a lot of claims. UHC's margins are there but don't seem to be that impressive. It wouldn't be surprising if they have to push back fairly hard or become insufficiently profitable.