This week’s Elevance Health and UnitedHealth Group quarterly earnings are much anticipated for signs these companies’ health insurance businesses and their rivals are keeping a handle on rising costs. In this photo, UnitedHealthcare health insurance company signage is displayed on an office building in Phoenix, Arizona on July 19, 2023. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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This week’s Elevance Health and UnitedHealth Group quarterly earnings are much anticipated for signs these companies’ health insurance businesses and that of their rivals are keeping a handle on rising costs.
Elevance, which owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states, and UnitedHealth, which owns the nation’s largest health insurer in UnitedHealthcare, will be the first health insurers to report second quarter earnings as the industry works to exit a period of higher-than-expected medical costs.
These insurers’ earnings reports report will offer clues as to whether the sector may finally be turning the corner after most health plans reported medical loss ratios north of 90% until the trend was interrupted with lower costs in the first quarter of this year. Such a ratio, which is the percentage of premium revenue that goes toward medical costs, was above 90% for much of 2025 for many insurers.
In the first quarter of this year, however, Elevance, which is the nation’s second-largest health insurer behind UnitedHealthcare, reported a benefit expense ratio eclipsing 86%. Elevance manages Medicaid coverage for poor Americans via contracts with multiple states, sells Medicare Advantage for older adults and markets commercial health insurance including individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The company also has a growing Carelon healthcare services business.
“The benefit expense ratio was 86.8 percent, an increase of 40 basis points, reflecting expected elevated medical cost trend in our Medicaid business, partially offset by improved performance in Medicare,” Elevance Health said in its first quarter earnings statement.
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Analysts who follow the industry say they expect second quarter earnings reports to show that companies have maintained their handle on medical cost trends, particularly in their Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage plans contract with the federal government to provide coverage available in traditional Medicare plus extra benefits and services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines with some also offering vision, dental care and wellness programs.
UnitedHealth said in its first quarter report that its “medical cost ratio was 83.9% for the first quarter 2026, down 90 basis points from the first quarter 2025.”
Elevance reports Wednesday, July 15 and UnitedHealth reports Thursday, July 16.