Centene's stock took a nosedive on Tuesday as the company's top brass offered further color on the marketplace headwinds battering its performance.
CEO Sarah London said during the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference that membership in its Affordable Care Act exchange plans was down to 3.6 million as of February, from 5.5 million at the end of 2025. She said the team expects that to decline further to about 3.5 million by the end of Q1.
Compared to the day's opening, shares in Centene were down by about 13% at 1:45 p.m. ET.
The company had braced for a likely downturn in enrollment following the expiry of the enhanced premium tax credits and the planned implementation of program integrity measures that proved controversial in the industry.
She said that the membership decline—despite representing a drop of nearly 40%—does fit within the company's expectations through the first quarter. London said that Centene expects further "modest attrition" in the marketplace space through this year.
"Marketplace still has a number of moving parts, but we have additional visibility as we’ve moved through the quarter," London said.
London also said that the insurer is seeing a shift in enrollment in different metal tiers.
She said that the percentage of people enrolled in silver plans is just under 50%, lower than in the past several years. The percentage of individuals choosing bronze plans falls in the mid-thirties, an increase, while the percentage of those in gold-tier plans is in the high teens, she said.
Given that these shifts are driven in part by the end of the enhanced subsidies, London said that the member mix in the bronze tier does look different than in years past. Prior to the rollout of the enhanced subsidies in response to the pandemic, the bronze tier was largely made up of younger, healthier individuals.
Now, the insurer is seeing people select a bronze plan because it's a lower cost option to ensure they maintain coverage, even if they were previously in a silver or gold plan, she said.
"We do see it as more of a mixed metal, if you will," London said. "I would say not the bronze tier of the past, because you will have some mix. We are seeing some of that traditional bronze behavior in there."
It’s not a total tilt to silver, but it is definitely more of a blend than we’ve seen in the past," she said.