Health-Insurance Q3 Data Snapshot: Market Cap and Overall Membership
Having spent a fair amount of time scratching through the financial statements of the industry's largest health-insurance companies, I figured it couldn't hurt to put together a few quick snapshots of how UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint and other giants are faring on a fundamental basis.
First up is a simple ranking of insurers by market capitalization -- roughly the total value of each company. Just to give a sense of how dramatically these companies' prospects have declined over the past year, I've also thrown in the year-over-year change in share prices at these companies, which should serve as a rough proxy for the decline in overall worth of the sector. (Market cap and share-price comparisons taken as of Oct. 31.)
Largest managed-care companies by market capitalization:
| Company | Market Cap | %Change |
| UnitedHealth Group | $28.3 billion | -52% |
| WellPoint | $19.5 billion | -50% |
| Aetna | $11.5 billion | -54% |
| Humana | $4.9 billion | -59% |
| Cigna | $4.2 billion | -67% |
| Coventry | $1.9 billion | -78% |
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Here's a quick table on trends in overall health-plan membership at the largest insurers. Things actually look pretty good at most of these companies -- Coventry excepted -- but the real story lies in the membership details, which I'll be posting separately. Among other things, Cigna's big gain reflects an additional 1.7 members via acquisition during the year. (Membership figures and annual percentage change as of Sept. 30.)
Largest managed-care companies by overall membership:
| Company | Membership | %Change |
| WellPoint | 35.3 million | +1.5% |
| UnitedHealth Group | 32.8 million | +5.7% |
| Aetna | 17.7 million | +6.3% |
| Cigna | 11.9 million | +16.4% |
| Humana | 11.5 million | +1.8% |
| Coventry | 4.6 million | -0.4% |
Further reading:
- UnitedHealth Is Still Bleeding Its Most Profitable Members
- Coventry Health Suddenly Looks Like a Target -- If Anyone Is Buying
- Humana Presses Its (Medicare) Advantage
- WellPoint Holds the Line-- For Now
- Cigna's Healthcare Business Melting Down, Out of Sight
- Can Aetna Buck the Health-Insurance Headwinds?
