'Health insurance: the unraveling continues'

Paul Krugman's blog.

From the NYT:

It is never a good thing if many of your customers can no longer afford what you are selling.

The UnitedHealth Group, which announced disappointing first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, said the weakening economy was causing fewer businesses and employees to sign up for its health insurance. UnitedHealth, whose stock fell sharply on the report, also cut its overall profit outlook for 2008.

“We are clearly being impacted by the declining economic outlook,” Stephen J. Hemsley, the company’s chief executive, told investors Tuesday.

While he acknowledged the company’s own missteps, Mr. Hemsley said that fewer employers — particularly small businesses — were offering health coverage to their workers, and that when they did, fewer employees were choosing to enroll.

Expect to see a significant deterioration in the health insurance statistics over the next year.

Things like this can't be helping matters.