UnitedHealth Group – a Real Life Majin Buu: The Art of Absorbing Everything in Sight

In the world of health care, no entity looms as large as UnitedHealth Group, the behemoth that has systematically woven its tentacles through every corner of the health care industry – buying up health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, financial services firms, medical data harvesters, physician groups and more.

Bear with me, but I can’t help but liken UnitedHealth's relentless vertical integration to a more colorful, albeit fictional, comparison: Majin Buu — from the popular Japanese anime series Dragon Ball Z.

For the unversed, Majin Buu is a pink, bubblegum-like villain, with a penchant for absorbing his opponents, thereby enhancing his own powers. UnitedHealth Group, to make the connection, is a corporate giant with a knack for swallowing up subsidiaries and broadening its influence across the health care landscape. Coincidence? Yeah, probably. But the parallels are fun to note.

The Pink Powerhouse: Majin Buu's Path to Dominance

Majin Buu’s rise to power was not just about brute strength — it was his ability to absorb the very essence of his adversaries that truly set him apart. Each opponent Buu absorbed (often by turning them into a sweet snack) not only increased his physical strength but also added new abilities and intelligence to his portfolio. With every Saiyan consumed and earthling changed to candy, Buu became more formidable, morphing into new forms and taking on traits of his swallowed foes.

 Majin Buu turning Dabura into a cookie before eating him.

Whether it was the cunning of Piccolo or the raw power of Gotenks, Buu’s strategy was simple: if you can’t beat them, engulf them. It wasn’t just about survival — it was about becoming the most powerful entity in existence by any means necessary.

The Corporate Colossus: UnitedHealth Group's Vertical Integration

Now, let’s pivot to UnitedHealth Group. Over the years, this company has evolved from a managed care company (what generally comes to mind when people think of a health insurer) to a towering conglomerate that touches nearly every aspect of health care. Like Majin Buu, UnitedHealth hasn’t just expanded — it has absorbed.

Majin Buu sucking up earthlings he turned into candy.

Pharmacy benefits? Check. UnitedHealth Group snapped up OptumRx, in 2011. Need to dominate health care delivery? Enter OptumHealth, which is now the largest employer of doctors in the United States. Government programs? UnitedHealth is in on that too, with their significant private Medicare Advantage and Medicaid businesses.

UnitedHealth Group’s strategy mirrors Majin Buu’s in many ways. Rather than relying solely on one aspect of the health care system, it absorbs entire sectors, integrating them vertically to create a more powerful and unified entity. The result? A company that’s not just a health insurer but an all-powerful health care titan, wielding immense influence over drug pricing, health care delivery and public policy which propelled the company to number 5 on the Fortune 500 list in 2023.

The Final Form: What’s Next?

(NOTE: If you’re now planning to watch Dragon Ball Z’s Buu Saga, you’re getting into spoiler territory.) Majin Buu eventually absorbed so much power that he became Super Buu – an even more dangerous, focussed and malevolent antagonist compared to the original Majin Buu. Will we wait for UnitedHealth Group to grow into an even larger colossus? A Super UnitedHealth Group?

I sure hope not. 

In the end, despite his massive strength (again, spoiler alert) Super Buu does get defeated. But at what cost? In the Dragon Ball Z universe, all of the humans on earth died and the planet was destroyed in the process of grappling with Buu’s strength. And much like it’s pink counterpart, UnitedHealth’s aggressive vertical integration is leaving plenty of dead and broke earthlings in it’s path towards complete health care market dominance.

Super Buu eating a foe he turned into a chocolate bar.

But, unlike Dragon Ball Z, there’s no heroic Goku poised to take down this bad guy, no Spirit Bomb growing to neutralize UnitedHealth’s power. Instead, the burden falls on regulators, policymakers and the public to recognize this threat and decide whether this kind of unchecked power is something we’re willing to live with.

Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from both Buu and UnitedHealth, it’s that unchecked power, whether it’s disguised with a soft pink appearance or a polished corporate veneer, should be feared.