US Big Health Insurance Corps 2Q 2013 Adjusted Earnings Up 14% and EPS Up Much Higher.....It's Mostly on the State Insurance Commissions

The Big 5 Health Insurance Corps had their Total Adjusted Earnings increase by a hefty 14% in the 2Q 2013 over the 2Q 2012.  And all 5 of them had very nice earnings increases, particularly very nice in a quarter where the 25 Dow Non-Financials Corps' Total Earnings declined by 11% and where the Big Technology Corps' Total Earnings declined by 15%.

And on an EPS basis, the growth was substantially higher, with WellPoint's Earnings growth of 16.7% advancing to a massive 27.5% on an EPS growth basis, due to its huge stock buyback strategy.  And the giant United Health's Earnings growth of 7.4% grew to 10.2% on an EPS growth basis. 

In all fairness to the country's total health care system, there is no way that State Insurance Commissions should be approving insurance premium hikes that result in these windfall profit increases of the Big 5 Health Insurance Corps.

And I don't see why Aetna was recently allowed to acquire the 6th Biggest Health Insurance Corp Coventry Health Care.  To bend down the long-term US health care cost curve, the country needs more health insurance companies, not fewer.

Below here are the Adjusted Earnings of these 5 Big Health Insurance Corps in both the 2Q 2013 and the 2Q 2012:

	2Q 2013	2Q 2012
	Adjusted	Adjusted
	Net	Net
	Income	Income
	From	From
	Continuing	Continuing	Increase	Increase
	Operations	Operations	(Decrease)	(Decrease)
	mil $s	mil $s	Amount	%
Big Health Insurance Corps
United Health	1,436	1,337	99	7%
WellPoint	787	674	113	17%
Aetna	549	452	97	21%
Cigna	512	434	78	18%
Humana	420	356	64	18%
Total all 5	3,704	3,253	451	14%