Media Center

Press Release

Salt Lake City, UT – December 6, 2005 – Consumer driven health plan leaders HealthEquity®, Inc., and UICI’s HealthMarket® announced today that they are joining forces to offer an integrated health savings account (HSA) and consumer driven health plan. Together these companies will provide an affordable, high quality health insurance option at a time when many employers are facing uncontrollable premium increases. HealthEquity is a consumer driven health care company that specializes in health savings accounts with comprehensive health care financial services. HealthMarket Consumer Driven Health Plans are underwritten by The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of UICI (NYSE; UCI).

"We are very pleased to be working with HealthMarket, one of the true pioneers in consumer driven health care," remarked Stephen Neeleman, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of HealthEquity, Inc. "The HealthEquity-HealthMarket alliance will offer a higher value, lower cost alternative to the crushing costs of traditional health care."

"HealthEquity shares our vision of empowering health care consumers," said Phillip J. Myhra, Executive Vice President of the Insurance Group for UICI. "Pairing our unique provider costtransparency tools with HealthEquity’s best-of-breed HSA administration will give our customers the tools that they need to make informed, cost-effective healthcare decisions."

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report noted the average annual medical insurance premium for family coverage is $10,880— more than the gross earnings of an individual working full-time at the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. Recent surveys report that 37% of the new HSA policies belong to individuals that were previously uninsured and 27% of the new HSA small business policies were offered by employers who did not previously offer health coverage to their workers.

An HSA is a tax-advantaged account that is paired with an HSA-compatible medical insurance plan. The HealthEquity HSA product and the HealthMarket medical plan will be integrated for the convenience of HealthMarket plan participants. HealthEquity and HealthMarket expect to begin offering this plan to employers in Texas and Georgia in January 2006.

About HealthEquity®, Inc.
HealthEquity was the first HSA administrator to offer integrated HSA plans. HealthEquity offers HSAs with superior health care financial services. HealthEquity specializes in offering HSAs supplemented with unparalleled educational tools which allow clients to navigate the health care system and wisely spend their money. The company partners with health plans, third-party administrators, and banks to offer seamless, uncomplicated HSA plans and award-winning services to the public. HealthEquity currently administers HSAs for approximately 700 employer groups in the nation.

For more information, please visit www.healthequity.com.

About HealthMarket® and UICI
HealthMarket Consumer Driven Health Plans are underwritten by The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of UICI. For more information concerning HealthMarket Consumer Driven Health Plans, please visit www.healthmarket.com. UICI (headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas) through its subsidiaries offers insurance (primarily health and life) to niche consumer and institutional markets, including the selfemployed, student and voluntary group markets. Through its consumer driven insurance plans, UICI seeks to provide affordable and accessible health coverage to individuals and small businesses. For more information, visit www.uici.net.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995:
Some of the matters discussed in this news release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to UICI that are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in this document by the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "objective", "plan", "possible", "potential" and similar expressions. Actual results may vary materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements include the risk factors set forth in the reports filed by UICI with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Mark Neeleman
HealthEquity Media Relations
mneeleman@healthequity.com

Donna Ledbetter
UICI Corporate Communications
801-519-9656 817-255-5405
donna.ledbetter@uici.net

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About HealthMarkets

HealthMarkets, headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas, is a provider of health and life insurance products to individuals, families, the self-employed, Medicare beneficiaries and small businesses. HealthMarkets offers products and services through its licensed insurance subsidiaries The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company. The Company’s offerings include individual and self-employed health insurance, small employer group health insurance, life insurance and reinsurance. Through its Consumer Guided Health Insurance plans, HealthMarkets seeks to provide affordable and accessible health coverage to individuals and small businesses. The Company is owned by a group of private equity investors, including affiliates of The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, members of management and the Company’s independent, licensed agents through the Company’s agent stock accumulation plans. For more information, visit http://www.healthmarkets.com.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995:

Some of the matters discussed in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in this document by the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "plan," "possible," "potential" and similar expressions. Actual results may vary materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions; the continued ability of the Company to compete for customers and insureds in an industry where many of its competitors may have greater market share and/or greater financial resources; the Company’s ability to accurately estimate medical claims and control costs; changes in government regulation that could increase the costs of compliance or cause the Company to discontinue marketing its products in certain states; the Company’s failure to comply with new or existing government regulations that could subject it to significant fines and penalties and/or result in restrictions on its operations; changes in the relationship between the Company and the membership associations that make available to their members the health insurance and other insurance products issued by the Company’s insurance subsidiaries; changes in the laws and regulations governing so-called “association group” insurance (particularly changes that would subject the issuance of policies to prior premium rate approval and/or require the issuance of policies on a “guaranteed issue” basis); significant liabilities and costs associated with litigation; failure of the Company’s information systems to provide timely and accurate information; negative publicity regarding the Company’s business practices and/or regarding the health insurance industry in general; the Company’s inability to enter into or maintain satisfactory relationships with networks of hospitals, physicians, dentists, pharmacies and other health care providers; failure of the Company’s regulated insurance company subsidiaries to maintain their current ratings by A.M. Best Company, Fitch and/or Standard & Poor’s; and the other risk factors set forth in the reports filed by the Company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Media Contacts:

Donna Ledbetter
HealthMarkets Corporate Communications
(817) 255-5405
Donna.Ledbetter@healthmarkets.com
www.HealthMarkets.com

Karen Mellen
For HealthMarkets
(312) 596-3487
Karen.Mellen@bm.com