"passing on such savings to consumers"

Absolutely not. They inflate prices by 200% and then give you 20% "savings" back. The whole idea of a health insurance company as publicly traded corporation is totally insane. They are designed to extract maximum profit from wherever they can get. The is no incentive to save money for patients. Any savings go to shareholders.

Ostensibly, the Affordable Care Act was supposed to reduce the average family's premiums by $2,500 a year.

When that didn't happen, the story changed to that number being how much more premiums would have risen.

Insurance premiums have only gone up as far as I can remember, though there's a ton of variables at play here. Inflation is an obvious one, plus continual introduction of more and more costly treatments- biologic injections, cancer therapies and so forth. The unfortunate increase in obesity rates in my lifetime (along with all the health complications) has been a significant contributor as well.

It all adds up.

you're correct. UHC is so hated because they're a "pharmacy benefits manager." - an organization that exists soley to make your life so miserable you give up on getting your medication.

Health insurance companies in the US are not allowed to deny coverage, and can only price premiums based on age (highest premium capped at 3x lowest premium, location, and tobacco use.

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/

https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums/

Health insurance premiums in the US are more tax than insurance. They also have low single digit profit margins with less than desirable shareholder returns (many are non profit in the first place), so they don’t have much room to lower premiums without also reducing healthcare expenses.

The insurance business in general is very competitive and not very profitable, so an insurer that tries to collect outsized premiums will usually suffer a loss of business.