Before I move onto other things, I wanted to briefly sum up the findings.
Lives Covered
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Kaiser comes in first place in three size categories, from small to medium. United Healthcare and Cigna, however, form the dominant players in what is, policy-by-policy, the more lucrative market.
Premiums
Kaiser also dominates in terms of the premiums it collects, with Cigna and Aetna duking it out for second places in a number of categories. United has a surprise spike in the one to five million range.
Broad Look
Combining all the ranges, we can even more clearly see Kaiser's dominance. They receive roughly 12% of every health insurance premium dollar spent in the United States. I wonder how much of that goes to Allison Janney? One thing I find amazing is the extreme variance between the top five. There's a almost 600% difference in the market control between first and fifth place!
Commissions
United and Anthem paid the best commissions at the policy level – almost five times what Kaiser paid. Anthem was tied for second place on commissions paid per premium, and came in a very solid first in terms of what they paid per life covered.
So that's the health market and the most dominant players in it. The power that a carrier like Kaiser has over what goes on in this country's healthcare system – from the doctor's office to the floors of Congress – must be pretty impressive. Luckily for them, it's not really something I can graph.
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