Thread regarding Cigna layoffs

I believe there are serious leadership and governance concerns within Eric Reed's organization. Decisions made by directors and managers have, at times, appeared unfair, with employees who contributed substantially to the work being laid off while those in positions of authority retained control. These practices have raised questions about transparency, accountability, and fairness.

@48h And that's before we deport or scare off the rest of the medical professionals in the US! Our healthcare is in a scary place right now.

@bp So are we. After getting a referral to a dermatologist for a potential skin cancer issue, it took them two months to call me back, and my appointment isn't until July. Same with other specialists - months to get an appointment, even for something as simple as a consult.

@ad IFP was disbanded already.

@a1 not sure where you are getting 4 weeks? It’s 2 weeks for every year served. And once they go through acquisitions that number will go down. I’ve seen it twice now. When Medco was sold to ESI and again when Evernorth eliminated departments.

@bg one of the biggest things not talked about right now is that many states are proposing forced pharmacy closures - meaning healthcare companies cannot own pharmacies. This would make it impossible for express scripts to operate in those states therefore sending Evernorth far into the red.

@b1 unfortunately I think you are right, but most people in those countries are also waiting in line for care and dying in the time being.

@b1 I could see the healthplan going away and Evernorth becoming a vendor for a government sponsored single payer system. That was one of my thoughts when they stood up Evernorth...that it was a plan to prepare for such long term contingencies.

Sadly, Cigna is just doing the same thing other major employers are doing. They are not positioning to sell.

major U.S. companies known to have cut more than 1,000 employees within roughly the past three months:

| UPS | ~30,000 | Announced as part of a 2026 restructuring plan. |
| Amazon | ~16,000 (global) U.S.‑specific numbers not broken out. |
| Dow | ~4,500 | Workforce reduction tied to AI‑driven restructuring. |
| Citi | Several thousand | Part of multi‑phase restructuring; exact 3‑month number unclear. |
| Pinterest | 1,000 | Not store‑level; corporate restructuring. |
| Intel | Several thousand | Cost‑cutting measures continuing into 2026. |
| Salesforce | >1,000 | Additional cuts following earlier 2025 reductions. |
| Tesla | >1,000 | Multiple rounds tied to cost restructuring. |

• Some companies (Pinterest, Citi, Meta, Google, Microsoft) did not disclose exact headcounts, but reputable reporting indicates the cuts exceeded 1,000.

@a5 You can say it's the worst sh-t you heard.....but when it happens we can revisit this thread.

They aren't going to sell Cigna as a whole, they will sell a division here, a division there, etc. It's not working out currently for Cigna, so someone will buy the insurance side for the subscribers, roll them in with another company and bo-m you have more people as subscribers. ESI will be rolled seperate to someone else, that's where the money is, so someone will scoop them up and absorb that business.

Call it d-mb, it's ok, but this has the writing on the wall of a corporate sell off. They trim headcount and then sell.

@ay How are you liking the new gig?

I believe it is actually far worse than what you are suggesting. With the recent testimony before congress by insurance CEOs (including DC), https://www.youtube.com/live/xBpGgfYHp9k
I am starting to believe they are purposefully dismantling private health insurance in the US all together. I think the testimony in the video above is just a charade, to make you think an oversight committee made up of corrupt politicians is going to hold a bunch of corrupt CEOs accountable for what's become of health insurance in this country.
I think they are setting the stage for government run health care....... a single payer system. As a reward, insurance executives are looting the ship before it goes down. Go check other health insurance company threads on this site. they are all doing the same thing.

Don't be surprised if the next election cycle has politicians promising to eliminate private health insurance, in favor for something like Canada or European models.

Amazon has had some big failures in healthcare so far - Haven, etc. It will definitely keep going back and testing the waters but Cigna is way too big and complex for it to be their next play.

Cigna really isn't an acquisition candidate. The market capitalization of the company is $70 billion+ - this is the price to buy all the stock in the company at current prices. The company also owes over $30 billion in debt and has $6 billion in cash, so you're talking $100 billion. That's a huge check. There hasn't been an acquisition this size in years: Vodafone buying Mannesmann in 1999 was $183 billion, and the crazy AOL Time Warner deal was $182 million. Gaz de France bought Suez SA for $107 billion in 2007 (both companies in France), Verizon - Vodafone was $176 billion in 2013 and Dow-Dupont was $173 billion in 2015, and there were a few others in the late 2015-2020 period (Praxair, Time Warner, TW Cable, Kraft, SAB Miller, Raytheon). But that's it. Like 12 deals, and most of them were specialty situations involving complex mergers. The health insurance industry is heavily regulated, and anti-trust probably wouldn't allow it (Trump's white house maybe, but you don't know who will be next).

Cigna could sell off divisions, but the divisions at Cigna are all pretty integrated together, and it's likely harder to sell certain assets than you might think. But they could sell parts of Evernorth I guess. But there are certain regulations that incent keeping a lot of this stuff under one roof so you don't run into MLR barriers as easily.

So I wouldn't hold out for a sale or worry about a sale. There's no real likely buyer. United Healthcare is having huge problems - way larger - so they aren't a buyer. Aetna is wrapped into CVS and no way they could keep Caremark and Express scripts under one roof - even the current FTC/DoJ would not allow that. Way too much centralization in the PBM space. I don't see a foreign insurance company wanting to buy into the US market at this point with Cigna. There's not going to be a PE consortium that buys this either - it's too big, too complex, too prone to regulatory headwinds, and it'd be very hard for them to exit unless they ipo it. Now a corporate raider could come on by and agitate for board seats and so on - haven't had one of those in a while - but again, not sure how much upside there is, and again, it's the massive market cap that sort of protects the company. It's huge.

I left Evernorth last summer - no regrets! Got a new gig outside of the healthcare industry.

This is by far the most id--tic thing I've heard and I have spoken with some dum--ss people in my life.

This is ridiculous. All companies are doing layoffs right now. Are they all preparing to be sold?

@ae and when you pair that with @ad hunch, it would make sense. Amazon lays off corporate because they know they would be gaining a lot of corporate if they bought Cigna. Then after the buy, they layoff even more to get rid of the duplicates.

@ad Amazon also had a massive layoff yesterday.

I believe Cigna Healthcare will be sold off and likely to a different type of player. Think Amazon… Evernorth will strike a sweet deal for a long term contract for the integrated business and as much ASO as is possible that is bundled. Need to keep the volume of Rx and Specialty Meds flowing through Accredo. That’s where the $ is. Just a hunch I’ve had for some time. No inside knowledge but it all makes sense. Sold MA, I think they’re positioning to sell IFP now. Then what you’re left with is a very good book of commercial business. They’ll get a good price for that.

I like where you’re headed, but I’m not sure who could/would acquire Cigna as a whole. And if they did, the regulatory hurdles would be difficult.

It’s more likely that, if anything is sold, it will be one of the bolt-on divisions. I doubt it would be Evernorth because that’s where express scripts lives. Without ES, the company might be in the red.

Interesting take though.

Could be but so many other corporations are doing similar layoffs with similar justification including Amazon, Mastercard, etc. Are they also prepping to be bought out? Or is more likely the USA employees are being SOLD out to developing countries?

D-mbest sh-t I’ve ever read on here to be honest.

It's a good theory, and it does have weight, but the market was pretty saturated with these mergers a while back. You think that will clear regulatory hurdles this time?

Plot twist, for sure

Interesting

Even better if you’re around to be cut loose if a sale occurs. Cigna severance with a change of ownership is 4wks for every year of service! I’ll take that!