Health care companies' huge tax windfalls

• UnitedHealth Group: $1.1 billion
• Bristol-Myers Squibb: $463 million
• Johnson & Johnson: $430 million
• Gilead: $413 million
• Biogen: $118 million
• Universal Health Services: $92 million

Details: These numbers were calculated by taking each company’s effective tax rate from the first 9 months of 2017 and applying it toward operating profits in the first 9 months of 2018.

• The difference between that number and the amount the company actually paid so far this year, under a lower rate, equals an estimated total savings.

The bottom line: Some companies have had similar or even higher tax bills this year compared with last year. But these 6 companies alone have reaped $2.6 billion from the lower corporate tax rate — a haul that has more than paid for any lobbying to get the law across the finish line.