Updated at 8:14 p.m.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, the state’s largest health insurer, reported operating gains of more than $50 million in 2025, marking a dramatic turnaround for the nonprofit insurer after years of mounting losses that brought it to the brink of insolvency.
The company reported on Monday a 2.7 percent operating margin on $2 billion in revenue for 2025, with $1.8 billion paid out in member claims. The insurer covers roughly 230,000 Vermonters.
President and CEO Beth Roberts said the gains were “a meaningful achievement,” while cautioning that more must be done to address the costs of care and health insurance premiums. Roberts became president and CEO of the insurer in January.
The update marks the end of a four-year streak of financial losses driven by rising claims, soaring hospital and prescription drug costs, and health insurance premiums that failed to keep pace despite steep annual increases. The confluence of factors drained the nonprofit insurer’s reserves, triggered regulatory alarms and forced it to take out a $30 million loan in 2024 from its affiliate in Michigan to stay afloat.
On Monday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont announced that the company repaid the $30 million loan late last year, avoiding $2.4 million in annual interest.
Ruth Greene, chief financial officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, said the loan and partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield in Michigan, along with recent state policy changes, have put the nonprofit “on a path to financial recovery.”
Last year, the Vermont legislature passed a bill that capped the amount hospitals can charge for outpatient prescription drugs. The law was quickly credited with cutting some proposed health insurance rate increases by more than half. More savings are anticipated in years to come, when a separate policy comes into effect that will limit what hospitals can charge for care by tying prices to Medicare reimbursement rates.
Rep. Alyssa Black (D-Essex), who chairs the House Health Care Committee, said she is encouraged that the company is taking its financial situation and next steps seriously. Still, she cautioned that the insurer can only do so much to bend the cost curve for consumers.
“Ultimately, we’re never going to get costs for ratepayers down until we deal with the cost of care,” Black said.
Vermont’s health insurance costs are among the nation’s highest. In 2024, health insurance premiums cost nearly 20 percent of Vermonters’ median monthly household income. The monthly premium for the state’s least expensive marketplace plan averaged $808, more than twice the national average and nearly triple the cost in New Hampshire.
Late last year, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont launched an ad campaign urging Vermonters to compare costs between health care providers and to make more cost-conscious health care decisions. Company officials said the goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the public’s collective responsibility to lower health care costs by choosing affordable, quality care.
In response to questions on Monday, Greene said health care costs rose 12 percent in 2025, down slightly from the year prior. She said it is too early to know what the premium rate increase will be for 2027.
