UnitedHealth Workers Get Critical on Care

At the same time, however, Skolnick can see why CDHPs make sense -- especially for UnitedHealth's own employees.

"If the company is going to preach to the marketplace that this is absolutely the way the future has to go," she says, "then they have to take their own medicine and work through the very same [benefit] rationing issues" that others face.

But apparently, some UnitedHealth employees have struggled to swallow that medicine and McGuire's compensation all at the same time. Only after McGuire became a billionaire, thanks to paper stock option profits, did he finally decide to cut back on his own perks. Meanwhile, some worry about the perks he has received already.

Skolnick doubts that McGuire did anything seriously wrong. Nevertheless, she harbors some fears that McGuire -- and even President Stephen Hemsley -- could be forced out under a worst-case scenario.

"That's the visionary and the executor," she stresses. "Forget it. That's a blow that will take the company a very long time to recover from. I really wouldn't be interested in the company anymore unless there's some hidden gem there I'm not aware of."

Prudential analyst David Shove considers McGuire invaluable as well.

"As CEO, Dr. McGuire provided the strategic vision which has transformed UnitedHealth Group from a mid-size regional HMO into an industry titan that is at the forefront of the health care services revolution," says Shove, who has an overweight recommendation on the company's stock. "While the stock option compensation may appear excessive to many, we truly believe that Dr. McGuire has earned every penny of it."