United Healthcare 2004 Annual Report Download - page 66

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64 UNITEDHEALTH GROUP
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated and Subsidiaries:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated and
Subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the related consolidated statements
of operations, changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period
ended December 31, 2004. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the
Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based
on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit
includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made
by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our
audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, such consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects,
the financial position of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated and Subsidiaries as of December 31, 2004
and 2003, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 2004, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in
the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (United States), the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as
of December 31, 2004, based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued
by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated
February 28, 2005, expressed an unqualified opinion on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of
the Company’s internal control over financial reporting and an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness
of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
Minneapolis, Minnesota
February 28, 2005
REPORTS OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM