UnitedHealth Group's first-quarter earnings sank 14 percent, as medical costs dulled enrollment-fueled revenue gains for the nation's largest health insurer, which also expects federal budget cuts will pressure its performance the rest of the year.
Shares of the Minnetonka, Minn., company dropped almost 6 percent in morning trading Thursday.
UnitedHealth said it still backs a forecast it made last November for 2013 earnings to range between $5.25 and $5.50 per share, but the automatic federal budget cuts, which will hit the government's Medicare program for the elderly and disabled people, will make the top end of that range harder to reach.
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