America’s largest health insurers have raked in more than $371 billion in profits since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to financial data reviewed by the Lever. More than 40 percent of that net income went to UnitedHealth Group, whose annual profits have skyrocketed by nearly 400 percent as the company now reportedly denies nearly one in three medical claims from its policyholders.
Insurers garnered these profits as the average American families’ premiums have risen to nearly $26,000 a year. In all, since the ACA was passed in 2010, more than $9 trillion of revenue has flowed to the country’s largest health insurance companies, which include UnitedHealth Group; Cigna; Kaiser Permanente; Elevance Health, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; and CVS Health, which acquired Aetna in 2018.
The financial data comes from the companies’ annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other disclosure forms.
The revenue and profits substantially increased starting in 2014, when the ACA was fully implemented. The law included a mandate for Americans to buy insurance, as well as government subsidies for such insurance policies.
Last week’s murder of Brian Thompson, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division, UnitedHealthcare, has sparked an outpouring of anger toward health insurers. New Gallup polling data shows Americans’ view of health care quality has declined to a twenty-four-year low. The same data showed that 62 percent of Americans believe “it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage” — a decade high.
These five insurers control over half of the commercial market share of the US health insurance industry. Their revenues and profits have increased as they have become larger, both because of mergers and because the ACA’s subsidies have helped Americans buy private…
Auteur: Helen Santoro
