For years now, UnitedHealth Group has been the first of the major health insurers to report its quarterly earnings. And Wall Street analysts and investors have looked to the healthcare giant — which owns the nation’s largest health insurer – for clues on how the sector is doing.
But not this week.
On Thursday, Elevance Health, the nation’s second largest health insurer, will be the first health insurer out of the box to report second quarter earnings as rivals reel or recover from higher-than-expected medical costs. UnitedHealth isn’t reporting its second quarter earnings until the end of the month.
Much is at stake. The Elevance Health report comes after government-subsidized health insurance provider Centene withdrew its 2025 financial guidance earlier this month due to higher costs in the individual health plans it sells under the Affordable Care Act as well as rising expenses from enrollees in its Medicaid plans.
Centene’s announcement was only the latest from a parade of health insurance companies that have struggled in the last two years to control costs of subscribers in plans subsidized by the government. Just last week, Molina Healthcare lowered its earnings guidance for the rest of the year in the face of cost pressures in all three of the government-subsidized health insurance programs it helps manage: Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and individual coverage under the ACA, also known as Obamacare.
And in May, UnitedHealth suspended its financial outlook for the rest of the year and replaced its top executive as the parent of UnitedHealthcare grapples with rising healthcare costs in its Medicare Advantage business. Medicare Advantage plans contract with the federal government to provide health benefits to seniors.
Medicare Advantage plans also contributed to struggles last year for Humana and CVS Health, which elevated a new chief executive in part to help gain control of its struggling Aetna health insurance business. CVS is also exiting the individual health insurance business, leaving about 1 million Aetna members in 17 states looking for new coverage in 2026.
In Elevance Health’s case, chief executive officer Gail Boudreaux, has kept the company’s portfolio of health insurance businesses diversified and somewhat free of issues that have dogged some of its rivals with more than half of its health plan membership coming from commercial or employer group accounts.
Elevance operates a healthy commercial business and is best know for its operation of Anthem brand Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states. In addition, Elevance manages Medicaid via contracts with multiple states and also sells individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.
Analysts at GimmeCredit noted in a report in late April that Elevance’s Medicare Advantage book of business is “considerably smaller than UnitedHealth’s with 2.3 million members, according for 5% of its member mix, of which 15% is group Medicare Advantage.”
Still, Elevance does have exposure to some of the issues its rivals have faced with more than 8 million Americans enrolled in its Medicaid plans and more than 1 million enrolled in individual coverage under the ACA.
“We are constructive on Elevance for its diverse member mix, balance between commercial and government businesses, franchise value and brand recognition in 14 key states through its licenses with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and efforts to diversify and expand services at Carelon,” GimmeCredit analyst Terri Cancelarich wrote in April.