UnitedHealthcare Unseats WellPoint as the Leading Health Insurer according to Mark Farrah Associates

KENNEBUNK, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) reports UnitedHealthcare surpassed WellPoint as the top health insurance company in the nation. As of September 2011, WellPoint enrolled 34.355 million people in medical plans whereas UnitedHealthcare enrolled 34.395 million -- a difference of about 40,000 members. MFA analyzed market share and performance of these companies as well as other leading health plans in the U.S. in a recent Healthcare Business Strategy release.

MFA found aggregate medical membership for the top seven health plans in the nation increased to 128.3 million as of September 2011, up from 125.6 million one year ago. Commercial, Senior and Medicaid segments all saw enrollment growth year-over-year. Business in the commercial segment grew by 1.4% from September 2010 to September 2011. The Medicare and Medicaid segments experienced enrollment growth of 5.6% and 9.4%, respectively. Most of the leading health plans saw a slight downturn in year-over-year profitability for the nine months ended September 30, 2011. This was attributed primarily to plans beginning to accrue funds to cover premium rebate obligations. A provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) requires insurers to provide a rebate to consumers if the percentage of premiums for clinical and health care quality services is less than 85% in the large group market and less than 80% in the small and individual markets.

In the latest Healthcare Business Strategy report, MFA reviewed enrollment and financial trends for Aetna, CIGNA, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint. Membership data, financial statistics and observations were gleaned from the January 2012 Health Insurer Insights™ series, a Mark Farrah Associates publication. To read the full text of "UnitedHealthcare Takes Lead from WellPoint," visit the Healthcare Business Strategy library on Mark Farrah Associates' website www.markfarrah.com.

About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)

MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Health Coverage Portal™, Health Insurer Insights™, Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Plans USA™ and the new County Health Coverage™.