Amid the deafening racket about health-care reform last year, UnitedHealth Group, the country's biggest managed care provider by revenue, quietly turned in a solid performance.
The company didn't escape the recession altogether -- rising unemployment rates eroded its corporate-heavy membership base -- but it grew sales and profits, thanks largely to its stable government and senior benefits divisions.
Now that the threat of universal health care's public option has passed, UnitedHealth plans to concentrate on the effects of reform: new fees, limits on premiums, and millions of Americans joining the ranks of the insured over the next few years. --M.K.
