The Federal Trade Commission said three top pharmacy suppliers made profits of 7,700 percent on a lifesaving hypertension drug.

UnitedHealth reported fourth-quarter results on Thursday that reflected persistent challenges for the health insurance sector.

But high medical costs contributed to results that disappointed Wall Street, and the company’s stock fell on the news that it had made less than analysts expected.

Units of CVS Health Corp., Cigna Group and UnitedHealth Group Inc. charged significantly more than the national average acquisition cost for dozens of specialty generic drugs, bringing in more than $7.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, UnitedHealth Group has been charging patients markups on lifesaving drugs. Between 2017 and 2022, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Health’s CVS Caremark marked up their prices by hundreds — and in some cases,

The FTC report found that from 2017 to 2022, three PBMs—UnitedHealth Group's Optum, CVS Health's CVS Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts—marked up prices at their pharmacies by hundreds or thousands of percent.

Health insurance companies gained today with shares of Humana Inc. ( NYSE:HUM ), UnitedHealth Group ( NYSE:UNH) and CVS Health ( NYSE:CVS) are on the market movers list among top gainers. Government proposal that potentially raised payments for Medicare Advantage plans in 2026 was said to be the main reason for the increase.

UnitedHealth, the biggest insurance company in America, is receiving backlash after an FTC report revealed that it was overcharging cancer patients by 1000%.

Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The UnitedHealth Group is overcharging patients for necessary life-saving drugs as a result of price gouging that increases the cost of such medication exponentially.

Shares of health insurance companies are trading higher after The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a rise to Medicare Advantage payments.

UnitedHealth posted a better-than-expected profit in the final quarter of 2024, but revenue fell short as challenges like Medicare funding cuts and a Medicaid enrollment drop hurt. Shares of the health care giant slid early Thursday after it released its first financial report since the brazen shooting of one of its executives outside a New York City hotel touched a national nerve and brought to the surface American frustration over health care access.