INDIANAPOLIS_UnitedHealth Group Inc. reported a soaring second-quarter profit Tuesday, but uncertainty surrounding the health care overhaul debate in Congress helped keep the managed care company's shares grounded.

The Minnetonka, Minn.-based company said its profit more than doubled compared to the same quarter last year, when hefty legal charges weighed down earnings. UnitedHealth also said revenue rose 7 percent, as it saw strong growth in its public and senior health insurance.

But the company also said commercial enrollment continued to slide.

Shares rose only modestly in Tuesday afternoon trading.

"They could have blown out numbers today and there still would be a limit as to how high the stock would run," Edward Jones analyst Steve Shubitz said.

Washington is scrambling to tame rising health care costs and cover the nation's estimated 46 million uninsured people. As part of that debate, Congress is considering the creation of a government-run health plan to compete with private health insurers and other measures that could hurt the industry.

With the specter of that debate, it was hard to see earnings "generating a lot of momentum for these stocks" without a big positive like an increase in guidance, Oppenheimer analyst Carl McDonald said in a research note.

UnitedHealth did not oblige, although it did raise the lower end of its 2009 earnings guidance. The company now forecasts $3 to $3.15 per share. Prior guidance was for earnings of $2.90 to $3.15 per share.

Analysts predict net income of $3.07 per share for the year.

Miller Tabak analyst Les Funtleyder said he liked the company's conservative guidance. He noted that it keeps the insurer from becoming a target of critics by projecting fat profits in the middle of the overhaul debate. It also allows for some upside to the stock if reform turns out worse than expected for the industry.


"There's no benefit to them being aggressive," he said. "I don't think the market will reward them."

UnitedHealth earned $859 million, or 73 cents per share, for the quarter that ended June 30. That's up from $337 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. Last year's second-quarter results included settlements in two class action lawsuits.

Revenue rose to $21.66 billion from $20.27 billion on increased premiums, which grew partly due to price increases. UnitedHealth is the largest commercial health insurer based on revenue.

The company trumped Wall Street expectations for both revenue and profit. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast, on average, a profit of 70 cents per share on revenue of $21.77 billion.

The insurer's commercial health insurance enrollment fell to 25 million in the second quarter. That represents a 6 percent decline from the same quarter last year. UnitedHealth attributed that mainly to economic pressures that forced clients to either cut jobs or trim benefits.

Commercial enrollment, which includes employer-sponsored coverage, has already fallen by 1.3 million people this year.

But the company's public and senior business, which includes Medicaid and Medicare coverage, grew 15 percent year over year to 7.1 million people in the second quarter.

"We expect this year's revenue growth in public and senior business to continue to more than offset the potential for further pressure from the employer market," UnitedHealth CEO Stephen J. Hemsley said in a conference call with analysts.

UnitedHealth shares rose nearly 3 percent, or 70 cents, to $25.55 in Tuesday afternoon trading.

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AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York.