These Big Health Insurers Covered Fewer People in the Commercial Market in 2023 Than They Did in 2013. Yet Profits Were Up. Here’s How.

UnitedHealth, Humana and CVS/Aetna insured fewer people in the commercial market in 2023 than they did a decade before. And yet, their profits were way up compared to then. How can commercial enrollment be down but profits up? 

Here’s how they do it: Take a look at these three health insurers’ financial statements from 2023. It’s easy to see that the huge growth these companies have enjoyed over the last decade has come in two main ways: by wedging themselves into the drug supply chain and through taxpayer-funded government programs.

UnitedHealth and CVS/Aetna suck billions from the drug supply chain through their pharmacy benefit businesses. Those two companies alone now control more than half of that market, with their pharmacy benefit operations accounting for more than 30% of their total revenues last year.

The second way these companies have increased profits is through taxpayer-funded government programs.

UnitedHealth, CVS/Aetna and Humana all contract with the federal government – which allows taxpayer dollars to run through these companies so they can administer programs like Medicaid, Tricare and the more-costly, private alternative to traditional Medicare – called Medicare Advantage.

Here’s the point: Health insurance companies, like UnitedHealth, CVS/Aetna and Humana, are not what most people think they are anymore. They’re pharmacies, they’re drug middlemen, they’re government contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

UnitedHealth, CVS/Aetna and Humana will continue to rely on the drug supply chain and taxpayer dollars unless regulators, the media and the American people object to the industry’s profiteering.