United Health Incorporated is a healthcare company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota that offers health insurance and other healthcare products. The insurance provider is the largest in the world when the annual revenue is taken into account. The insurance provider’s customer base is also quite large, with 115 million customers, as per data obtained in 2018.

The company was founded in 1977 by Richard T. Burke as the parent company of Charter Med Incorporation, which he also established in 1974 in Minnetonka, Minnesota. In 1988, the United Health Group started offering pharmacy benefit management with the help of its subsidiary, Diversified Pharmaceutical Services. The company later sold its subsidiary to SmithKline Beecham for $2.3 billion in 1994.

Throughout the 1990s, the pharmaceutical giant successfully completed several major acquisitions, most notable of them being Ramsay HMO, a Florida-based insurance company, in 1994, followed by Metra Health Companies Inc. for $1.65 billion in 1995, HealthWise of America in 1996, and Health Partners of Arizona in 1998. Acquisitions continued into the 21st century, with the pharmacy company acquiring GeoAccess and AmeriChoice in 2002, Mid Atlantic Medical Services and Golden Rule Financial in 2003, PacifiCare Health Systems in 2005, John Deere Healthcare in 2006, and Sierra Health Services in 2008.

In 2017, United Health acquired Rally Health, a company that offers gamified personal health management systems. Similarly, in 2019, the company acquired Davita Medical Group for $4.3 billion and Equian for $3.2 billion. The pharmaceutical giant also managed to successfully acquire the online patient community platform, PatientsLikeMe, and incorporate it into its research wing.