UnitedHealth Workers Get Critical on Care

Some rank-and-file UnitedHealth Group (UNH Quote) employees feel a whole lot less pampered than their billionaire CEO.

Take a look at their health care benefits, of all things. UnitedHealth ranks as the most diversified health insurer in the country, a company that takes great pride in offering other companies a wide range of products -- including some of the richest benefits available in the marketplace today. Yet the company's 55,000 employees have just three choices when it comes to their own health care coverage. And all of those are so-called "consumer-driven" health plans.

These plans, known as CDHPs, feature higher deductibles -- and the potential for much greater out-of-pocket expenses -- than the traditional coverage that UnitedHealth continues to sell to others. The plans have grown increasingly popular among employers hoping to shift more health care costs onto their employees and previously uninsured individuals who simply cannot afford anything else.

But at UnitedHealth, a company that keeps reporting record profits and handsomely rewarded its longtime CEO, some employees feel they deserve better. After all, they watched CEO William McGuire pocket millions of dollars and add to his huge stash of stock options -- valued at an eye-popping $1.6 billion -- when the company switched them over to the skinnier benefit plans offered by its new Definity division last year.

McGuire has recently come under fire for collecting massive piles of stock options that, some believe, may have been backdated to make them worth more. McGuire believes and asserts that the company has acted properly but, with the Securities and Exchange Commission asking questions, has arranged for a special review of past option grants. Moreover, he has pledged to halt future grants for some executives -- including himself -- in the future.

In the meantime, however, McGuire already ranks as the best-paid health care executive in the country. Indeed, he has made so much money that he can afford to spend millions on pet projects -- like a massive butterfly exhibit -- without making a dent in his stash.