Mark Farrah Associates, a healthcare data aggregator and publisher, analyzed the 2015 third quarter results of seven major U.S. health insurers — Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Health Care Service Corporation, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group.
The report — which is based on MFA's January 2016 Health Insurer Insights series — compares the insurers' results between the third quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2015.
Here are nine things to know about MFA's findings, which were published in a recent report.
1. Most of the insurers had favorable profit margins for the third quarter of 2015. Aetna's profit margin for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2015 was 4.8 percent, while it's increase during the third quarter of 2014 was 4.4 percent. During the same time period, Anthem's profit margin was 4.03 percent, up from 3.76 percent in the third quarter of 2014.
2. Between the third quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2015, total membership of the insurers increased 2.3 percent. Collectively, the insurers cover more than 56 percent of the U.S. health insurance population. Since the third quarter of 2014, they added almost 3.3 million members.
3. As of September 2015, UnitedHealth is the leading health insurer in terms of enrollment. In the third quarter of 2015, UnitedHealth had more the 38 million members, which is a 1.39 million increase from the 36.67 million individuals it insured in the third quarter of 2014. However, UnitedHealth's Medicare Supplement membership of more than 4 million isn't including in MFA's findings.
4. During the same time period, Anthem was the second-highest insurer regarding enrollment. As of the third quarter of 2015, Anthem had more than 37.8 million enrollees. This amounts to an increase of 3.2 percent year-over-year. The number doesn't include Anthem's 851,000 Medicare Supplement enrollees.
5. HCSC's enrollment slightly increased. As of September 2015, HCSC covered more than 14.5 million individuals. Year-over-year, its membership increased by 74,065.
6. Cigna's membership grew 2.8 percent between the third quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2015. As of September 2015, Cigna had 13.8 million members, up from 13.5 million in the third quarter of 2014.
7. Kaiser's membership grew 6.5 percent during the same time period. Kaiser enrolled 9.2 million in the third quarter of 2014 and 9.8 million in the third quarter of 2015.
8. Aetna's enrollment decreased by 0.86 percent between the third quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2015. During the third quarter of 2014, Aetna had 23.1 million members. At the same time period in 2015, the insurer's membership had shrunk by 154,000 members to a total of 22.9 million.
9. For the same time period, Humana's membership shrank 1.75 percent. Humana enrolled 9.68 million members in the third quarter of 2014 and 9.51 members in the third quarter of 2015.