November 6, 2012 12:00PM 

# ObamaCare (a Subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group) 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been spending unknown and unauthorized amounts of taxpayer dollars to create a federal health insurance “exchange.”

Now we [learn](http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/265659-conflict-of-interests-concerns-raised-as-obama-races-to-implement-health-reform) that as the result of a recent purchase, one health insurance carrier’s parent company—UnitedHealth Group—basically just bought the federal exchange that is supposed to regulate it. There’s a former exchange-planning official in the mix, yet nobody told the Securities and Exchange Commission—and now there are [allegations](http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-cover-did-hhs-encourage-violation-sec-law_660249.html?nopager=1) that HHS counseled the buyers not to make that legally mandated disclosure.

Maybe a second Obama term won’t be so dull after all.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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