Thursday, January 31, 2013

Big Three US Health Insurance Corps 4Q 2012 Operating Earnings down 4%, and Annual 2012 Operating Earnings up 1%

There are three Corporations which dominate the Health Insurance landscape.  They have now all released their 4Q 2012 earnings.

How did they do?

Well, not very well.

The Total Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income of these 3 Big Health Insurance Corps declined by 4% in the 4Q 2012 as compared with the 4Q 2011.  And all three of them had profit declines.

For the year 2012, these 3 Big Health Insurance Giants had their Total Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income increased by a meager 1%.  And this was a substantial earnings growth deceleration from the 7% total earnings growth  in 2011 and the 13% total earnings growth in 2010.  Whoa!

All I can say is.....Thank you Kathleen Sebelius and Obamacare for eliminating some of the excess profits of these Big 3 Health Insurance Corps.  The long-term total health care cost curve has been bent back by quite a bit.

This Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income above was used when this amount was disclosed in the company's earnings release, and it excludes Special, Unusual Items which are significant in amount relative to Reported Net Income. 

Below here is the Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income of these three Health Insurance Corps for the 4Qs of 2012 and 2011:



4Q 2012 4Q 2011







Non-GAAP Non-GAAP







Adjusted Adjusted Increase Increase





Net Net (Decrease) (Decrease)





Income Income Amount %





mils of $s mils of $s mils of $s





US Big 3 Health Insurance Corps

















UnitedHealth 1,244 1,258 (14) -1%




Aetna 317 354 (37) -10%




WellPoint 316 347 (31) -9%














Total all 3 1,877 1,959 (82) -4%





And below here is the Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income of these three Health Insurance Corps for annual 2012 and 2011, along with the percentage earnings change for each of the most recent three years:



2012 2011



Annual Annual 2012 2011 2010

Non-GAAP Non-GAAP vs vs vs

Adjusted Adjusted 2011 2010 2009

Net Net % % %

Income Income Change Change Change

mils of $s mils of $s














UnitedHealth 5,526 5,142 7% 11% 21%
WellPoint 2,456 2,555 -4% -9% -4%
Aetna 1,770 1,966 -10% 26% 26%





Total all 3 9,752 9,663 1% 7% 13%