NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 2, 2005--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its 'A' senior unsecured debt rating to UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s (NYSE:UNH; A/Stable/A-1) $500 million 4.875% senior unsecured notes, maturing March 15, 2015. The proceeds will be used to payoff a portion of the outstanding commercial paper and for general corporate purposes. "The rating reflects UNH's very strong competitive position, strong diversification, extremely strong earnings profile, very strong financial flexibility, and good statutory capitalization," explained Standard&Poor's credit analyst Shellie Stoddard. UNH reported extremely strong pretax earnings of $3.97 billion in 2004, compared with $2.84 billion the prior year. The company completed three significant acquisitions in 2004 and nearly doubled long-term debt to
