Overall earnings looked just a little weaker at the biggest U.S. health insurers in the first quarter than they did in the first quarter of 2014, according to analysts at Mark Farrah Associates.
The analysts compared first-quarter results for Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET), Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM), Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI), Health Care Service Corp., Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM), Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH).
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Profit margins shrank at a majority of the plans, the analysts say in their latest market review. The first quarter profit margin fell to 5.3 percent, from 5.4 percent, at Aetna, for example, and to 6.5 percent, from 8 percent, at Kaiser.
But the profit margin increased to 4.5 percent, from 3.9 percent, at Anthem, and to 5.8 percent, from 4.8 percent, at UnitedHealth.
The analysts were also able to get enough Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange enrollment data to create an exchange plan enrollment table for the companies.