Q1 2025 Medicare Carrier Financials Side-By-Side 🏥

UNH, ELV, CNC, HUM, CVS, CI, MOH Revenues, Loss Ratios, Profits -> Side-by-side

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Here is what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter!

  1. Important links đź”— - the best articles we found this week about the Medicare Market along with links to Jared’s recent LinkedIn posts.

  2. Deep Dive đź“š - Q1 2025 Medicare Carrier Financials Side-By-Side 🏥 

  3. Sponsor Snapshot 🚀 - brought to you by MMI+

  4. Compliance Chatter đź“˘ - Several new regulations to review!

It’s only a 5 minute read, but it will make you 10x smarter.

Here are IMPORTANT LINKS đź”— for the week:

  1. The United States Files False Claims Act Complaint Against Three National Health Insurance Companies and Three Brokers Alleging Unlawful Kickbacks and Discrimination Against Disabled Americans - (link)

  2. GoHealth’s Statement on Recent Allegations in the United States False Claims Act Complaint - (link)

  3. Sanders introduces Medicare for All - (link)

  4. US Supreme Court sides with HHS in Medicare DSH payments case - (link)

  5. U.S. Senators Introduce Bill to Enable Medicare Reimbursement for AI-Powered Medical Devices - (link)

  6. eHealth Introduces AI Voice Agents to Enhance Customer Experience in Health Plan Selection - (link)

  7. Medicare Supplement Broker Incentives - 2025 Q2 Update - (link)

  8. Average Medicare Supplement Rate Increases Continue Trending Higher in 2025 - (link)

Jared’s recent LinkedIn posts:

  1. Centene Corp (CNC) - reported Q1 2025 results recently. - (link)

  2. Elevance is pulling back on marketing non D-SNP MA plans. - (link)

  3. CVS Health Corp (CVS)- parent of Aetna - reported Q1 2025 today. - (link)

  4. Humana (HUM) - reported Q1 2025 results this morning. - (link)

DEEP DIVE 📚

Q1 2025 Medicare Carrier Financials Side-By-Side 🏥 

In this week’s deep dive, we are looking at publicly traded Medicare carrier Q1 2025 financials side-by-side.

The insurance carriers included in this analysis are all trying to capture a piece of the growing Medicare market (along with other insurance markets), and do so profitably. Here they are:

Aside from Centene and Molina, these carriers have both health insurance operations and healthcare services operations (providers, PBMs, pharmacies, etc.).

Here is the split of Q1 2025 revenues between these two segments for each carrier:

Before comparing results I did want to mention a few newsworthy items from Q1:

  • UnitedHealth Group cut full-year EPS guidance by over 10% (read more here)

  • Elevance pulled back marketing non D-SNP products (read more here)

  • Cigna closed the sale for their Medicare insurance business to HCSC (read more here)

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Income Statement & Membership Side-By-Side

To compare and contrast the Q1 2025 results for each carrier, the Income Statement is split between “Insurance Operations” and “Healthcare Service Operations”. The consolidated statement is also displayed.

One Note: Healthcare Service Operations is different for each carrier, but generally includes providers, pharmacies, PBMs, and technology.

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YoY % Change

Here is the % change in key metrics from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025.

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Current Valuation Metrics

Here are current valuation metrics for these carriers:

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Notable Observations

Membership

  • UNH and ELV both increase Medicare Advantage membership significantly YoY (they were the “winners” of AEP enrollment growth)

  • Humana and CVS Medicare Advantage membership declined YoY driven by Plan Termination, Service Area Reductions, and benefit reductions

  • Humana increased Medicare Supplement 30% YoY!

  • The impact of Cigna’s sale of their Medicare products is flowing through their membership numbers (100% reduction in MA and MS).

  • Centene grew their PDP membership 22% while paying no commissions

  • Centene and Molina both grew their Commercial membership

Insurance Operations

  • Combined, these carriers increased revenues (up 11%), lowered MLRs (down 0.2%), increased operating profits (up 29%), and improved profit margins by 0.7%

  • Notably, Humana and CVS (the two carriers the reduced MA membership the most) saw the biggest improvement in MLR

  • United (up 19%), Centene (up 39%), Humana (up 75%) and CVS (up 291%) saw increased profitability in their insurance segments.

Healthcare Services Operations

  • CVS saw a decline in profitability (down 13%)

  • All other Companies with Healthcare Service operations increased profitability.

Consolidated Results

  • Combined revenue up 11%

    • Elevance and Centene saw the largest increase of 15%

  • Combined operating profit up 18%

  • Combined profit margin up 0.3%

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Final Thoughts

Most carriers had a solid Q1.

Insurance ops were strong across the board—higher revenue, better margins, more profit. United and Elevance led the way in MA growth.

Humana and CVS lost members but actually saw insurance profit jump (thanks to tighter benefits and footprint).

Healthcare services were more mixed—CVS stumbled, others improved.

Overall: steady results, but lots to watch heading into the second half of the year.

SPONSOR SNAPSHOT đźš€: Medicare Market Insights +

We’re excited to let you know the “Trends” section of the Medicare Market Enrollment web app is now available!

Now you can see how MA & PDP enrollment has changed over time.

By State, Parent Org, Plan Type and more…

See “Trends” in action → (Video)

What MMI + Subscribers read this week…

  • Broker/Agent MA Commissions Expected to Go Up in 2026 - A look at historical MA/MAPD agent comp., and what to expect in 2026. (link)

  • April '25 MA/MAPD and PDP enrollment data - April '25 enrollment data has been loaded. Here are a few observations. (link)

COMPLIANCE CHATTER 📢

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