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I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. UnitedHealthcare is facing a lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by denying fewer claims but not warning ahead of time that its profits would decline. The nation's largest health insurer has been under heightened scrutiny following the murder of its then-CEO ahead of an investor conference in New York late last year. Marketplace's Nova Safo has details.
The proposed class action lawsuit is for anyone who owned a share of UnitedHealth Group between December 3rd and April 16th. Why those dates? Well, December 3rd is when the company issued its first forecast for its financial performance in 2025, expecting earnings per share of about $30. A day later, its CEO, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed outside a hotel in New York City.
April 16th is the day before the company updated its forecast, trimming earnings expectations by about 10%, saying its costs were higher than it had previously expected. The updated forecast caused UnitedHealth's stock to plummet in value by the largest amount in more than 25 years.
The lawsuit says company leaders had the opportunity to warn investors ahead of time that their profits would take a hit because UnitedHealth had allegedly shifted strategies and was allowing more claims to go through, thus increasing its costs.
The company has not responded to the lawsuit and did not return a request for comment. I'm Novosaf for Marketplace. President Trump is expected to announce a new U.S. trade deal with Britain sometime today. The agreement would be the first country-to-country deal fleshed out since the president's big tariff rollout. The BBC's Henry Zeffman has that.
The agreement is likely to reduce tariffs facing British steel and cars. While technology might be a big theme, the UK has very notably not ruled out reducing the digital services tax paid by some of the US tech giants. President Trump teased this announcement in a social media post last night, declaring that he would be unveiling a major trade deal with what he called a big and highly respected country. It
It will be seen in Downing Street as a significant boost, diplomatically and economically. Henry Zeffman is with our news partners at the BBC. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is calling his forthcoming meeting with China's vice premier negotiations. They're set to talk trade in Geneva this weekend. Besson said White House advisor Peter Navarro will not attend the meeting. Navarro is seen as perhaps the biggest booster of high tariffs in the name of more jobs on U.S. soil.
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Carrying cash can be a pain. Pennies and nickels piling up on the bed stand, the dirty look from the cashier when all you have is a 20. But let's consider some hidden downsides that come with widespread card and cashless smartphone transactions. A new report from the Center for Study of Responsive Law finds cashless transactions may encourage using money you don't have. Longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader is that organization's founder, and he joins us now. Mr. Nader, welcome.
Thank you. You and your team want us to know that this shift to go cashless also has its own costs. For sure. Once you get into the credit economy and you've got a credit score collar around you, intimidating, complaining, you start being exposed to sky-high interest rates for unpaid balances. You start getting exposed to hidden fees, penalties, identity theft.
And it also induces overbuying. You get stuck in a credit cycle. There are trillions of dollars, as you know. You want to use a debit card.
You don't want to borrow money for the transaction. You see a system set up for that that individuals don't really understand, but also may not have had much of a role in shaping. That's right. They're lured by visions of convenience. Of course, you know, just swipe or hit a button. And this convenience is transformed by these omnipresent fine print contracts and
into exploitation, into gouging, into invading privacy.
And you try to get through to these banks, insurance companies, your state legislature, city council person, member of Congress, federal agencies, because you've got complaints. And what do you have? Robotic voicemail. So it's a closing out of the voice of the consumer, which, after all, is the greatest pillar of our economic activity and well-being.
And I think it ought to be raised to that level of personal freedom, control over your own money, control over your own personal data. We get disclosures either in the mail or online that talk about what the fee structure should be if we do a cashless transaction, I suppose.
How this all works, that information is available to us if we look. No, it's very difficult. There are all kinds of hidden fees, overcharges, penalties. I mean, you know, you can't keep up with it. Let's face it. The sellers are very skilled. And buyers, you know, they have other things on their mind. They're trying to raise their families. They don't have the skill level to deal with the maneuvers and deceptions. As you talk about...
the system's set up to make cashless easier and how it can disadvantage some consumers, you must still share the concern that portions of the population are unbanked and it's nearly impossible to build, say, generational wealth if you can't get financial services. Exactly. And being unbanked is usually a function of poverty. And that has to be addressed.
We should have postal banking reinstated after it was abandoned. So there are remedies, but we have to have a broad consumer consciousness to get these remedies in the public dialogue.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive Law has a report out on the cashless society. And Ralph has a new book out on paths to action to improve lives. The title is Civic Self-Respect. Just came out the other day. Mr. Nader, thank you very much. You're very welcome, David. Thank you. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio. It's the Marketplace Morning Report from APM American Public Media.
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