UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Stephen Hemsley would like you to know – particularly if you happen to be a stockholder for UHC – that he is very, very sorry.  He’s sorry that UHC participated in Obamacare. He’s very sorry that UHCs participation in the exchanges blew up in his investors’ collective faces. He’s very – so very very very – sorry that the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year as a result. In other words: maybe don’t expect UnitedHealthCare to drop out of the exchanges entirely next year – but don’t bet against that happening, either.

But I digress. I’m sorry, too.

• I’m sorry that nobody at UHC thought to do their due diligence by reading the volumes and volumes of criticism directed towards Obamacare before, during, and after its passage.
• I’m very sorry that nobody at UHC had the moral courage to push back on the Democratic party’s relentless – and ultimately reckless and irresponsible – insistence that incompetent politicians could write competent health care insurance laws.
• And I’m very – so very very very – sorry that Mr. Hemsley did not have the mother-wit to end that presentation of his with a fervent “So for the love of God, people: stop giving money to Democrats until they fix this problem.”

…Did that last bullet point sound overly partisan? Well, it’s certainly overtly partisan; but then again, so is the situation.  It’s difficult to overstate just how amazingly one-sided this discussion is: the Democrats rammed Obamacare through without even really trying to get Republicans to share in the blame. Which means – since there’s so much blame to be had, now – that the Democrats pretty much need to be thoroughly spanked until they learn the lesson that You Do Not Meddle With Things That You Do Not Understand.

So, yes, I think that UHC should be making the point that an important life lesson to take from all of this is that the Democrats messed up, and must be punished until they stop listening to progressives and liberals above the age of sixty-five.  And why shouldn’t UHC make that argument?  It is, after all, true.

Moe Lane