ConnectiCare sold to California-based Molina Healthcare for $350 million, affecting 140,000 members

Jul. 23—EmblemHealth is selling off its ConnectiCare subsidiary to a California company, with potential changes in store as ConnectiCare's new parent promises to put its own "playbook" to work in the Connecticut health insurance market.

Molina Healthcare is paying $350 million for ConnectiCare, which expects about $1.4 billion in health insurance premiums this year. Molina Healthcare has its headquarters in Long Beach, Calif., and is a fixture on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations with $34 billion in revenue last year.

ConnectiCare was founded in 1981 by a group of physicians, and was acquired in 2005 by EmblemHealth's predecessor company Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York.

In 1980, emergency room physician David Molina founded the company that would become Molina Healthcare, with a focus on treating patients who could not get treatment under California's Medicaid program. Medicaid and Medicare continue to make up a major portion of the company's business. Entering April 2024, Molina Healthcare had 5.7 million members in 21 states, including Medicaid plans in New York and Massachusetts.

Under EmblemHealth, ConnectiCare has remained a smaller player in the health insurance market in its home state with 140,000 members. Anthem is the dominant carrier in Connecticut with more than a million members, according to a 2023 tally by the Connecticut Insurance Department, with Cigna and Aetna combining for nearly 600,000 between them.

Earlier in his career, Molina Healthcare CEO Joseph Zubretsky was a senior executive with Aetna, which was acquired in 2018 by CVS Health.

UnitedHealthcare and its Oxford Health Plans subsidiary also offer health insurance in Connecticut.

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