UnitedHealth Boosts 2018 Outlook on Insurance, OptumHealth Gains

Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH)has done an admirable job of navigating the ever-changing landscape of healthcare reform over the past several years. The company was slow to embrace the health insurance exchanges set out in the Affordable Care Act, and that helped leave UnitedHealth less vulnerablewhen the Trump administration sought to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Even as many focused on the positives of tax reform, UnitedHealth had to find ways to navigate the return of the excise tax on health insurance premiums in 2018 without seeing a material negative impact to its bottom line.