GoHealth bankruptcy comes after revenues plunge, losses rise in '25

GoHealth Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection after its revenues plunged and its losses ballooned last year.

The Chicago-based health insurance marketplace and Medicare-focused digital health company announced June 7 that it is seeking Chapter 11 reorganization. GoHealth plans to transition company ownership to some of its lenders during the restructuring process, which it hopes to complete before the start of the next annual enrollment period.

"We believe that we will emerge from this process well positioned and look forward to further securing and serving our current members," CEO Vijay Kotte said a news release.

GoHealth did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Stock-price woes

GoHealth's stock and net revenue have dropped sharply since the company went public almost six years ago.

The company announced its IPO of 43.5 million shares of its Class A common stock at a public offering price of $21 per share, equivalent to total gross proceeds of $913.5 million. Shares shot up to $266.25 at the close of July 31, 2020, GoHealth's first trading day. By late-March 2022, however, the stock fell below $20 and would never move above that mark again. GoHealth shares closed at 67 cents on the last day before announcing the bankruptcy filing.

Earnings progress erased by bad 2025

After falling precipitously from 2021 to 2022, GoHealth had steadily seen its net revenue picture improve over the next few years. But that reversed sharply in 2025 when revenues plunged to $361.8 million from $798.9 million a year earlier.

The company also had been marching toward the black since going public, posting a net loss of just $7.3 million in 2024. But all that progress was wiped out in 2025, when GoHealth's net losses soared to $497.8 million.

GoHealth scaled back Medicare Advantage activity in 2025 in response to tightening health plan economics, Kotte said during a November earnings call.

"The industry experienced similar pressures previously," Kotte said. "We learned from those cycles, and we use those lessons this year to move early."

The company did not hold an earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2025, but Kotte reiterated those difficulties in a quarterly earnings release, writing that the "Medicare Advantage market remains in a structural reset going into 2026, and our view is that health plans continue to prioritize retention, member quality, and disciplined unit economics."

What's next?

The consumer impact of GoHealth filing for bankruptcy is likely to be minimal, due largely to the fact that it operates as a Medicare Advantage brokerage, according to Louise Norris, a health analyst for the consumer-focused HealthInsurance.org.

"Chapter 11 can take a lot of different paths and they may continue to operate as usual, but if they were to close down then it wouldn't affect the policies that they sell or people who have purchased those policies," Norris said.

There has been a trend over the last three years of fewer Medicare Advantage plans being offered and managed care companies leaving that market, Norris said, pointing to recently announced exits by Molina Healthcare, Inc. and Presbyterian Healthcare Services Inc. The Medicare Advantage market hit a peak in 2023, said Norris, with plans "steadily decreasing since."

A number of major managed care insurers in 2023 warned of rising costs in the Medicare Advantage space as seniors sought care delayed during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The segment has continued to be an area of financial difficulty for many managed care insurers, although in recent months some of those difficulties were abated by a higher-than-anticipated 2027 rate increase for those plans.