UnitedHealth Employees Claim The Company Is Offering Voluntary Layoff Packages For Up To 30,000 Workers Despite ‘Better-Than-Expected Profit’ In 2024
The giant in the healthcare industry is still reeling from the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Trzykropy | Shutterstock UnitedHealth has been in the news since Brian Thompson, the CEO of its subsidiary UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down in New York in December 2024. The state of health insurance in America caused many to wonder if Thompson really deserved any sympathy.
Just as UnitedHealth was undoubtedly hoping that bad news around the company would die down for a while, they have put themselves back in the spotlight. According to employee claims, despite profits, over 30,000 employees have been offered voluntary layoff packages.
Employees at UnitedHealth alleged that the company is laying off tens of thousands of workers.
A TikTok content creator named Michelle C. seemed to be the one to break the news of UnitedHealth’s supposed layoffs. It is not clear if Michelle is an employee of the company or not, but her insider information, combined with the mention of a company meeting, suggests she very well could be.
“Um, it has now been confirmed that 25,000 people are getting the option to be bought out before UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare, whatever you want to call them, decided to lay off people with no pay, with nothing,” she said. “And they’re not wanting to give their people answers.”
Naturally, people had plenty of questions for Michelle regarding this information. One person requested that she share more whenever she was able to, so she did. “So I am getting, um, several comments asking me to share more of what’s going on,” she said in another video. “Um, I don’t have a lot of information, you know, a lot more, anyways, than what any of y’all that were in the meeting have. I am trying to get as much as I can to give y’all the information that’s out there.”
“We’re all navigating … the same path at the same time,” she explained. “At the end of the day, no one knows y’alls situation better than each of y’all. Do what’s best for y’all in your circumstances.”
Although brief and somewhat cryptic, Michelle’s videos have garnered quite a bit of attention, with one even surpassing half a million views. Although little information is available, people clearly want to get to the bottom of what’s going on.
One man suggested this could present an opportunity for some UnitedHealth employees.
Another TikToker named Kyle, the owner of Green Flag Franchises, which provides “franchising services for current and future entrepreneurs,” also heard the news of the impending layoffs. He tried to maintain a positive attitude when talking about them. “It’s an opportunity, if you work at UnitedHealthcare, and you don’t wanna work there anymore already, to go out on your own terms with a lot of new opportunity,” he offered.
Kyle did not say where he got his information from, but he provided more details. “UnitedHealthcare, these guys, they just announced voluntary layoffs, up to 30,000 for people that accept the agreement between February 24 and sometime in the first week of March,” he shared.
“I don’t have all the details, but, uh, people that are taking the voluntary severance package will receive seven to 30 weeks of severance pay, uh, and I assume also cash out their vacation. That’s pretty typical.”
All of this comes following good financial reports from UnitedHealth.
Typically, when a company plans to lay off its employees, it’s because they’re struggling financially. However, UnitedHealth reported that it’s doing just the opposite. An Associated Press report from Tom Murphy stated that the company “posted a better-than-expected profit in the final quarter of 2024.”
Nevertheless, Murphy also acknowledged the difficulties faced by healthcare companies during these uncertain times and reported that UnitedHealth’s stock recently fell.
If they are indeed real, UnitedHealth’s layoffs are just the latest in a string of layoffs from multiple companies across different sectors. Unfortunately, it feels like a time when people should brace for the worst.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.