Was Q1 Really That Bad for Life, Health and Annuity Issuers?

UnitedHealth Group kicked off life, health and annuity issuers’ earnings release season Friday by posting great results.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based powered through worries about inflation, interest rates, geopolitical issues and strange happenings in Washington by reporting $5.6 billion in net income for the quarter on $92 billion in revenue, up from $5 billion in net income on $80 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2022.

Revenue at the UnitedHealthcare health insurance business climbed to $70 billion, from $63 billion.

Results were good both at the company’s Medicare plan business and its commercial health insurance business. “We are optimistic for the rest of this year,” Andrew Witty, the company’s CEO, told securities analysts, during a conference call the company held to discuss its latest earnings.

Company executives noted that cash flow and other sources of liquidity are not an issue at UnitedHealth: Executives said the company has plenty of cash and turned over $3.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the first quarter.

What It Means

Some of the companies that serve your clients or occupy slots in their investment portfolios, may have done poorly in the first quarter. But some did fine.

UnitedHealth Details

UnitedHealth ended the first quarter providing or administering health coverage for 53 million people, up from 51 million people a year earlier.

Medicare Advantage plan enrollment increased to 7.5 million, from 6.9 million.

The number of Medicare supplement insurance insureds held steady at about 4.3 million.

Questions

Here are five questions that could hover over other insurers as they prepare to post their own first-quarter results.