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Health Benefit Providers Need a Check-Up

The accompanying table provides statistics and the top seven companies by market cap for the ETFI Health Benefit Providers Index & short ETF proposal of 33 companies with market caps over $100M, which includes all types of pharmacy services (retail, mail order, institutional), pharmacy benefit managers, managed care companies, health insurers, and supplemental health insurance. The 25 lowest rated companies in the index have lost nearly half of their market value in the past year, underperforming the Healthcare Sector S

The Wall Street Journal  “Price Strategy Puts WellPoint in Bind” reports that the CEO of America’s largest health insurer, Angela Braly, is having difficulty balancing shareholders' need for profits with unaffordable premiums. To cope with rising medical expenses,  WellPoint (WLP), sharply increased premiums. WellPoint lost 189,000 members in the first six months of 2008 and predicts 150,000 more will be lost by year end. Now neither shareholders nor policy holders are happy.

WellPoint’s membership loss story parallels UnitedHealth Group (UNH) membership losses, with some interesting twists.

Exercise Credits: A Financial Incentive to Combat a Growing Health Epidemic

As I expected, UnitedHealth (UNH) lowered its profit guidance for this year. The company now sees EPS coming in between $2.95 to $3.05.

Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley noted the quarter's results were hurt by lower margins, adding that second-quarter weakness also stems from reduced margins at its risk-based businesses and Medicare operations. "We are continuing to take the aggressive specific steps necessary to improve our operating performance, as well as to better position our organization for sustained future growth," he said. To stop weakness in the risk-based operations, the com

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is a leading diversified health and wellness provider. They serve about 70 million people through four major business units: <!--more-->

• Health Care Services
• OptimumHealth
• Ingenix
• Prescription Solutions.

2007 revenues were $75.43 billion and earnings came in at an all-time high of $3.42 /share. Value Line rates UNH as an 'A+' financial strength and assigns it 95th percentile rankings for both earnings predictability and share 'price growth persistence'.