America’s largest health insurers have raked in more than $371 billion in profits since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, according to financial data reviewed by The Lever. More than 40 percent of that net income went to UnitedHealth Group, whose annual profits have skyrocketed by nearly 400 percent as the company now reportedly denies nearly one in three medical claims from its policyholders.
Insurers garnered these profits as the average American families’ premiums have risen to nearly $26,000 a year. In all, since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, more than $9 trillion of revenue has flowed to the country’s largest health insurance companies, which include UnitedHealth Group; Cigna; Kaiser Permanente; Elevance Health, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; and CVS Health, which acquired Aetna in 2018.
