Fitch Publishes National Health Insurers Dashboard

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fitch Ratings has published a 'Dashboard' special report on national health insurers, specifically: Aetna, Inc. (Aetna), Cigna Corp. (Cigna), UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (UnitedHealth) and WellPoint, Inc. (Anthem). The report provides a high level overview national insurers' common credit strengths and weaknesses as well as comparisons between the four national peers within Fitch's rated universe.

The dashboard explores the impact of market profiles and size/scale, capitalization and financial performance characteristics on National health insurers' insurer financial strength (IFS) ratings.

National health insurers' market position and size/scale characteristics are typically consistent with 'AA' to 'A' category IFS ratings reflecting membership that is significantly greater than other more geographically concentrated health insurers. Further national health insurers serve a greater variety of by markets, such as commercial, Medicare and Medicaid.

The national insurers reported higher financial leverage ratios higher than Fitch's median guidelines for current rating categories, which was frequently tied to a history of acquisitions. National health insurers showed a capacity to carry greater debt levels, for example, Cigna and UnitedHealth each reported debt-to-EBITDA and EBITDA-to-interest expense ratios under 1.5x and greater than 15x, respectively.

Solid performance of national health insurers following implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be partially explained by a focus on commercial business. Greater than three-quarters of membership at national health insurers was in commercial business, which Fitch considers to have a higher credit quality than government-sponsored business such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The first edition of the 'National Health Insurers Dashboard' is available at 'www.fitchratings.com' or by clicking on the above link.

Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research: National Health Insurers Dashboard

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=863150

ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE.

Fitch Ratings
Douglas M. Pawlowski, CFA
Senior Director
+1 312-368-2054
Fitch Ratings, Inc.
70 West Madison Street
Chicago, IL 60602
or
Media Relations:
Elizabeth Fogerty, +1 212-908-0526
[email protected]

Source: Fitch Ratings

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