UnitedHealth Group — Ethics Grade D

UnitedHealth Group receives an overall ethics grade of D (31/100) on CancelCo's corporate accountability database. Sector: Healthcare. Market cap: Large Cap.

Category scores

• labor: 45
• privacy: 10
• consumer: 15
• environment: 60
• humanRights: 25

Documented incidents (3)

• Change Healthcare Ransomware (high, 2024) — A massive cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare paralyzed US medical billing for weeks and exposed the private data of millions. Critics pointed to systemic vulnerabilities created by the company's aggressive consolidation.
• Racial Bias in Clinical Algorithms (high, 2021) — Studies found that UnitedHealth's algorithms consistently prioritized white patients over sicker Black patients for high-risk care management. The algorithm used healthcare spending as a proxy for health needs, which reflected historical inequities.
• AI Denial Litigation (high, 2023) — The company was sued for allegedly using an AI tool called nH Predict to systemically deny elderly patients rehabilitative care under Medicare Advantage, knowing the tool had a 90% error rate.

Documented good deeds

• Affordable Housing Investments — The company invested over $800 million in affordable housing projects across the US to address social determinants of health.

Ethical alternatives

• Kaiser Permanente — Non-profit model provides better alignment between patient outcomes and financial incentives.