UnitedHealthcare is the largest insurer in both the commercial and Medicare Advantage markets with 51.3 million members, while Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies collectively have the largest geographic location.
Elevance Health, formerly Anthem, is the largest insurer by market share in 82 of 383 major metropolitan areas, according to the study. Health Care Service Corp.., which sells Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, is the second largest and Florida Blue is third.
No insurers immediately responded to requests for interview except UnitedHealthcare, which referred questions to the health insurance trade group AHIP, which did not respond to requests for interviews.
Although health insurance exchanges are generally the least competitive, market share has changed the most in this product line over time, and smaller insurers have attracted a significant number of members leave larger insurers.
Elevance Health’s exchange market share drops from 14% in 2014 to 4% in 2021 as it goes from being the largest company by member to the sixth largest. Meanwhile, Insurtechs Bright Health Group and Oscar Health broke into the top 10 for the first time last year, though both plan to shrink their exchange footprints by 2023.
