Who Owns Anthem Blue Cross?

The roots of Anthem Blue Cross trace to 1946, when Blue Cross plans operating in individual states began consolidating to build larger, more financially stable insurance pools. The Blue Cross concept itself dated to 1929, when Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas, offered prepaid hospital coverage to school teachers. That model spread rapidly, and by the mid-1940s dozens of state-based Blue Cross plans were operating across the country.

The organization that would become Anthem began in Indiana in 1944 as Associated Insurance Companies. It secured a Blue Cross license and began operating as a statewide health plan, primarily serving employer groups. Through the 1950s and 1960s, the Indiana-based entity expanded its coverage products to include major medical and surgical benefits, tracking the rapid growth of employer-sponsored health insurance that followed the 1954 tax code provision making employer health contributions tax-deductible.

Acquisitions accelerated through the 1990s. In 1992, the Indiana plan converted from a nonprofit to a mutual insurance company, which allowed it to raise capital and pursue acquisitions more aggressively. It acquired Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky in 1993, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio in 1995. The company went public in 2001 as Anthem, Inc., listing on the New York Stock Exchange and raising approximately $1 billion in its IPO.

The 2004 merger with WellPoint Health Networks, a California-based Blue Cross licensee, was the defining transaction in the brand's history. Anthem paid approximately $16.4 billion for WellPoint, creating at the time the largest health insurer in the United States by membership. The combined company retained the WellPoint name initially but operated the California health plans under the Anthem Blue Cross brand. In 2012, the company formally renamed itself Anthem, Inc. to align the parent name with its most recognized consumer brand.

Anthem acquired Amerigroup Corporation in 2012 for approximately $4.9 billion, adding a significant Medicaid managed care business and establishing Anthem as one of the largest Medicaid insurers in the country. Further acquisitions followed: Simply Healthcare Holdings in 2015 and Beacon Health Options in 2020. The company also reached an agreement to acquire Cigna Corporation in 2015 for approximately $54 billion, but the Department of Justice successfully blocked the deal in 2017 on antitrust grounds.

In June 2022, Anthem, Inc. rebranded as Elevance Health, signaling an intent to expand beyond traditional insurance into care delivery and pharmacy services. The Anthem Blue Cross brand name was preserved in its existing licensed markets. As of 2025, Anthem Blue Cross of California remains the largest individual health plan in California by enrollment, with approximately 4 million members in that state alone.