UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) shares are falling on Tuesday after the company reported quarterly financial results and drew investor reaction to President Donald Trump‘s comments on Medicare insurers.
Investors in the health insurance company may be sitting on losses, but one member of Congress may have timed his exit to minimize them.
Congressman Sells UnitedHealth Shares
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) sold UnitedHealth shares in December, weeks ahead of Trump’s comments and quarterly earnings, according to the Benzinga Government Trades page.
Hern sold $250,000 to $500,000 in UnitedHealth shares on Dec. 23, completely exiting his holdings of the health insurance company. The transaction was disclosed on Jan. 22.
UnitedHealth shares traded between $323.76 to $327.80 on Dec. 23.
With shares trading at $285.51 on Tuesday and down 18.8% on the day, Hern’s timing of the trade saw him miss out on more losses from his position. UnitedHealth shares are down 11.8% to 12.9% since he sold his shares.
Hern’s last trades in UnitedHealth were in 2024, 2023 and 2022 when he reinvested dividends from the company back into buying more shares.
The original purchases of UnitedHealth shares came back in September 2021 with the following trades:
- Sept. 23, 2021: Bought $250,000 to $500,000 in UNH stock
- Sept. 2, 2021: Bought $50,000 to $100,000 in UNH stock
UnitedHealth shares traded at over $400 back in September 2021, ranging from $407.51 to $414.85 on Sept. 23, 2021 and trading between $418.24 to $424.40 on Sept. 2, 2021.
This means that while Hern may have timed his trade to prevent further losses, the trade still resulted in a 21.6% loss, down from 19.6% if the shares were bought at the lowest prices on their respective days and sold at the daily high on Dec. 23, 2025.
Hern’s UNH Stock Trades Draws Attention
Stock trading activity by members of Congress have drawn increased scrutiny in recent years with investors looking at the timing of trades and what committees members belong to.
Hern is a close ally of President Trump and also serves on the House Republican Policy Committee and on the House Subcommittee on Health. These committee assignments may have led to knowledge of government plans
“Well would you look at that … UnitedHealth $UNH down 8% after hours on news of Trump admin proposing flat rates for Medicare. Rep. Hern (R) sold off his entire $500K position just a couple weeks ago,” the PelosiTracker account on X tweeted.
The X account for WatcherGuru also highlighted the questionable timing of Hern’s trade.
“Last month, Rep. Kevin Hern sold up to $500,000 worth of UnitedHealth stock. Today, the Trump administration proposed flat Medicare reimbursement rates for insurers, causing $UNH to crash over 10%. Hern is a member of the House Subcommittee on Health,” WatcherGuru tweeted.
Benzinga previously wrote on the active trading of Hern, which may be related to his business background.
Hern has owned several businesses and is a former McDonald’s franchisee. A local paper once called Hern “the McCongressman” before he sold all the McDonald’s franchised restaurants he owned.
One of the stock trades Hern highlighted previously by Benzinga was buying shares of Freddie Mac when it was a penny stock trading at 45 cents to 47 cents. Hern later sold the stock for a profit of more than 40%.
Hern previously violated the STOCK Act failing to disclose transactions he made in 2021.
Image: Shutterstock
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