Judge tosses UnitedHealth’s defamation lawsuit against the Guardian

UnitedHealth’s defamation lawsuit against the Guardian, a nonprofit news outlet in the U.K., has been tossed by a U.S. district court judge in Delaware who reviewed the case Monday.

In its complaint, UnitedHealth had accused reporters at the Guardian of six counts of defamation, stemming from a May 2025 story that detailed how the healthcare company's insurance arm paid incentives to long-term patient care facilities to reduce hospital transfers, resulting in at least one serious brain injury.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Calvin L. Scott, Jr., threw out all six of the defamation claims, writing in his ruling that the company had resorted to cherry picking and twisting aspects of the Guardian’s report to make it appear to claim things that weren’t actually in there.

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